homeschooled By GOD – Lesson Eight: Resist!
Lessons Learned in the Classroom of Life
new YEAR, new YOU
January 19th, 2022
Psalm 40:1-3, ‘I waited and waited, and waited some more, for God. At last, He looked; finally, He listened. He lifted me out of the ditch (the slimy pit), pulled me from deep mud. He stood me on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.’
LESSON EIGHT: RESIST
Isn’t the word ‘RESISTANCE’ an oxymoron, annoying but exciting, frustrating but victorious, debilitating but invigorating? What are commonalities of things we resist? Well, currently, we resist places and people who are sick and might be carriers of the virus. We resist long lines in grocery stores and post offices and waiting rooms. We resist difficult people and confrontational situations. We should resist addictive behaviors and places where it is better we not spend time and waste ourselves. We also are called to resist getting noosed by social media sites, where we skinny dip in waters we normally would never even be found clothed in. We are to resist gossip and mongering, bullying and being bullied. We should resist certain foods if we fight allergies or are prone to diet. We should resist anything that causes us to pause and then find we got stuck in the muck and can’t move forward. Anything trapping us needs to be widely avoided.
Do you know you can also resist the devil? The enemy is prowling about, waiting to devour the children of God. He is skanky, mischievous, sneaky, seductive, ready to eat you up, and he plays for keeps. He isn’t the cute little red guy with a diaper and pitchforked tail glinting his eyes at you and whispering nothing sweet in your ear. He is in it to win it, which means your soul, and also your attention and affection. You leave yourself open for one virile moment and he will be on you like salt on French fries or cheese on nachos.
God, in His ever-patient lessons, homeschooled me by reminding me we have the ability to resist the enemy. I never realized it quite like this until I heard the Lord use one of my pastors to build me up. In God’s Word, James 4:7b says, ‘Resist the devil and he will flee from you.’ We are guaranteed he will flee; he will run in the opposite direction of us, but we first must resist him. We cannot expect him to flee us if we are playing games with him or dabbling in things we should not. We don’t have to speak in satanese or know some casting out exercises to cause him to flee; we just simply must resist him and anything he has to offer or stands for.
It reminds me of when I was a child, and then years later when I had children of my own. I was taught, and thus I taught my own children, to not accept anything from a stranger, not candy, not a ride, not entertaining the company of, not a thing from someone they did not know, therefore, resist any offering from someone unknown to them. In so doing, those ‘strangers’ would likely flee. Resist the devil and he will flee far from you. But, additionally, stay vigilant. He might be back so always be on the lookout and ready to resist.
The greatest reward of all is that we are promised victory and protection and grace when we resist the schemes of the enemy. We are surrounded by God’s goodness and He promises eternal triumph by our resistance of being entrapped in the enemy camp. It requires following short-term instructions, but the reward is everlasting.
