His Power Is All In Your Mind

 

The newly constructed tracks of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railways were first linked at Promontory Point, Utah, on May 10, 1869. In celebration, Leland Stanford, the president of Central Pacific, drove a golden spike symbolically completing the job. On his first swing, he missed the spike, drawing gales of laughter from the experienced railroad workers looking on. This misfire was embarrassing, but ultimately harmless. But when it comes to moral issues, a swing and a miss can be deadly. Sin is “missing the mark” that God has set for us, and it is no laughing matter!

[Job 1:4-5] “And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, ‘It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.’ Thus Job did regularly.” Did you catch that? Job was as concerned about the things that might have been done wrong as much as what was done wrong. Job wasn’t just counting up to what he had to offer to cover up his and his son's sins. He wanted to be extra careful to make sure that nothing could have been done that might have been against the Lord.

Sometimes as humans, we tend to give more credit to our enemies than they actually deserve. I know that in my personal life, I struggle with making Satan much more powerful than he already is. Sometimes we tend to think of Satan as an all-powerful being, when in reality - he isn’t. This is demonstrated in the book of Job several times when we see Satan going to God and having to ask His permission to be able to get to Job. Not only was he forced to ask for authority, but he was still limited to what he could and couldn’t do.

“Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.’ So, Satan departed from the presence of the Lord” (Job 1:12). We see that Satan cannot do anything that God doesn’t want him to do. This shows that he is not omnipotent, and certainly not more powerful than God. We can also see from Job chapter one that Satan is not omnipresent. “The Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ Then Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.’” (Job 1:7). We see here that Satan cannot be everywhere at once. We also see in all of this that Satan still answers to God. Satan and God are not on the same level when it comes to power. It isn’t like in the movies where the “gods” are all powerful and there is a constant battle between them. God has Satan in his place, and Satan couldn’t overstep the power God has given him, as he always wants to.

What a Christian can take from this is that we shouldn’t give more credit to Satan than he is worth. Yes, he is an enemy, and a powerful one, but we shouldn’t give him more power in our heads than he has. We should take comfort in this, remembering that we serve an all - powerful God who Satan has no control or chance against. God is in control, and that is how it will remain.

“I beg of you, my dear brother, to live among these books [Scriptures], to meditate upon them, to know nothing else, to seek nothing else.” – Jerome

“The Word of God and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select just a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than the whole Bible can make a whole Christian.” – A.W. Tozier

“Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5).