Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Today’s devotion is adapted from a recent entry on Greg’s Blog. Click here to read more from Greg’s Blog.

The Python and the Chihuahua

But I fear that somehow you will be led away from your pure and simple devotion to Christ, just as Eve was deceived by the serpent.
2 Corinthians 11:3

I read about a large python that ate a family’s dog, a silky terrier-chihuahua crossbreed. The children, ages 5 and 7, watched as the snake finished his meal.

This is sad, but also odd. The local zoo owner, who eventually came and picked up the snake, said, “The family that owned the dog had actually seen it in the dog’s bed, which was a sign it was out to get it.”

“They should have called me then, but (the snake) got away . . . and came back,” he added.

We can be like that with the Devil. He has essentially plopped himself right in our bed, and we pay him no mind. “Oh, he won’t be back,” we think to ourselves.

But just like that python, he is stalking you! Don’t underestimate his power, and don’t leave your mind open to his attack.

As a snake, Satan attacked Eve’s mind. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:3, “But I fear that somehow you will be led away from your pure and simple devotion to Christ, just as Eve was deceived by the serpent.”

Why?  Because it is here in “command central” that we reason, contemplate, and fantasize. Your mind can reach into the past through memories, and into the future through imagination.

You need to train your mind to think properly and biblically. We read in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that we should cast down “arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (nkjv).

We, as believers, need to learn how to think more clearly.

Copyright © 2009 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved. 
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
and
to listen to Greg Laurie's daily broadcast on OnePlace.com, click here.

SPECIAL OFFER

Hope for Hurting Hearts
In times of tragedies and trials, certain things become evident:

  • This life will have its sorrows
  • God loves us
  • Jesus weeps in our times of pain
  • God can be glorified through human suffering

Hope for Hurting Hearts, Pastor Greg Laurie’s new book, examines these truths, revealing God’s love and care for us, and shows how we can find hope, even in the midst of the most unbearable pain and sorrow.

You can have your own copy of Hope for Hurting Hearts by Greg Laurie in appreciation for your gift to Harvest Ministries this month