My beautiful wife and I have not worn one of their masks, we will not be taking their vaccination shots, we have not been deceived, nor fallen into this trap. This is how Satan works, he plays upon the basest emotions of mankind, pride, vanity and lust, through our desires he promises that which he cannot truly offer, and which will have no eternal effect. “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:5)
In essence, Satan told our first parents that the Almighty was not allowing them the opportunity to know the difference between good and evil because then His authority, His Sovereignty would be challenged, and when there is a challenge, there is an opportunity for loss. It’s all he has, the temptations of what we already possess, the promise of what we can have without him. His purpose is menial at best, for he offers nothing that he can promise, we must be willing to accept his wares. He gives all that is in the world because at this moment he owns this world, (2 Cor. 4:4) but everything of this world is going to pass away, (Matt. 24:35) and no one takes anything of it with them when they leave.
The weaker mind falls quite easily into these traps, accolades and praise from our fellow man, power over the lives of others, the vanity that comes with ownership, no matter what that item is and whether it can be seen, felt or touched by another is immaterial, the adoration of self is sufficient enough to keep a man in the traps. The rational mind, the one that can contemplate truth without the context of emotions, is no less susceptible to our adversary’s advances, in fact, many times they are more easily deceived, for they reckon within themselves that what is, is all there is. Their emotional desire towards what they know they cannot obtain does not sway them, at least not as much as those whose lives are based upon the emotions of the moment. They are offered those same items, but in a different manner, for their pride in knowledge is just as easily fed by him who has known man since the garden as any other whom he tempts. They simply need to believe that they are right, and everyone else is wrong, and they relish in the competition to prove their one-sided view. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exo. 20:3)
Rule number one, and the first rule that Satan helped Adam and Eve break, long before it was written, ye shall be as gods. Those who have been born-again are not in a battle for their souls. “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Eze. 18:4) We are safe in the arms of Jesus, we are in a battle for the submission of our will towards the Lord God, to deny ourselves all the treasures of the world for the glory of God.
The world is to see us as different, as not from this place, as having different desires than all those around us have, that is our battle. The traps are everywhere, they cannot be completely avoided in this life. “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Romans 7:19) Whether we fall for the moment in an emotional state, or we attempt to stay logical and rationalize the situation, we will fall. “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” (Prov. 24:16)
What matters is our response to those times and how we glorify God when He shows us our mistakes, how we react when He comes to find that lost sheep, again and again. When one has fallen into a trap, one can more easily recognize that trap when it appears again, even though it may be modified ever so slightly, and this is how we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Our adversary is not going to quit until you stop breathing, but someday you must recognize that you, my friend, are the most formidable adversary you will probably ever meet.
