Recently I’ve been talking about doing our part of our covenant with God and letting Him do His part.  In short review, we cannot reasonably expect God to bless us if we are in violation of the terms of our covenant with us.  Often we think God is not doing His part, but as the Word of God says, there are conditions to every covenant and promise, and He always does His part “IF” we do ours.  We must submit ourselves unto God’s will.  So let’s suppose we ARE doing our part according to God’s Word, then what?
   This is the part I like to bring your attention to.  We know the devil will ALWAYS come to tempt and challenge us.  After all, if we have something, the devil wants to steal it from us, and that never changes.  If you have money, the devil will send circumstances against you to steal it from you or cause you to have to spend it on things you shouldn’t have to, like vehicle breakdowns, or something breaking in your home, or health issues.  You see, the Lord Jesus clearly identified Satan as the thief in John 10:10, where He said, The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; but I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.  We know two things are unchanging; Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and likewise Satan remains a thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
      So that means, when you are suffering loss of any kind, the devil has been to your house and has left his calling card.  But Satan does not attack without cause.  I’ve said many times, “A burglar never breaks into an empty apartment.”  When the thief comes looking for things to steal, he watches a house.  When nobody is watching, he peeps into a window.  And if he finds a door or window unlocked, that’s all the invitation he needs to come inside and find all the owner’s goods.  And likewise when a person fails to keep his spiritual house in order, the thief comes checking things out, and when he finds opportunity, he takes advantage of it.
   Back in Job’s day, the devil saw fear in Job, so there was his open door, and Satan went before God requesting permission to afflict Job, which God allowed because, after all, Job WAS walking in fear.  However, God called Job faithful, and all the time He had a plan to bless Job even more than He had already, but being a just God, He knew the devil had a point, so He allowed Satan to afflict Job.  We all have read the story hopefully, and saw all the suffering the devil caused Job.  Yet during all his trials, Job never cursed God, nor accused Him.  Even Job’s wife tried to get him to curse God and die, and Job said she was as one of the foolish woman.  Job’s “friends” came and accused him of unrighteousness, and in the end, God strongly rebuked his friends and told them if they had Job make an offering for them, they would be forgiven.  And God gave Job double for his trouble.  You see, even Job had left the door open for Satan’s attack.  Buy how much more do WE do the same by our words and fears and worries?
   I want to point out something here that you may have never considered before.  When God created Adam, He gave him complete reign and authority over the earth, EXCEPT for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that was in the midst of the Garden.  Well, we all know Adam and Eve were like the kids who couldn’t keep their hands out of the cookie jar, and they disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden tree.  Adam and Eve had all authority on Earth, and when Satan came to tempt them, they should have rebuked him, but like we do today, they believed Satan’s lies, and acted upon them.  They COULD have and SHOULD have stood their ground and not put up with the devil’s presence.  They were completely righteous and holy before they disobeyed God.  During the conversation with the devil, Eve was STILL righteous and holy before God.  It was only when she believed and acted upon the serpent’s words that she lost her righteousness and authority and what’s worse; she talked Adam into relinquishing his authority as well.  How she accomplished that is not disclosed in the Bible, but it happened nonetheless.  It merely says she gave him the fruit and he ate it.
   That opened the door to Satan’s reign over mankind.  You need to realize something here:  you can be perfectly righteous before God and still be tempted by Satan.  The temptation does not make you unrighteous.  You can be a holy man of God and see a pretty woman walk down the street, and Satan will tempt you to lust after her.  As I said, the temptation does not make you unrighteous.  But yielding to it does!  Generally speaking, the devil knows you better than you know yourself.  He knows your weaknesses and he will use them to tempt you to disobey God.  If he can’t get you to disobey God, then he will bring circumstances into your life to get you into fear, and it can be most anything: fear for your kids, fear for your job or finances, or fear from a doctor’s report about your health.  Fear and doubt destroy your faith in God!
   Fear is a temptation that is veiled.  Fear is intended to do one thing, and that is to get you to doubt the integrity of God’s Word.  He promises to take care of you, and You may counter that fear by saying, “God has delivered me from every snare of the enemy, for it is written, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.”  And the devil will tell you, “Yeah, God DID deliver you each time, but this time is different, you’re on your own this time and I’m going to destroy you.”  So here comes fear in like a flood, and the devil has found the chink in your armor after all.  That small opening is all it takes for you to get into more trouble than you ever dreamed of.  But if you keep yourself right before God through praise and worship and repenting of your sins, which by the way means TURNING FROM YOUR SINS, and not continuing to do them, then your righteousness before God stands.  From that right standing before God, you have authority from God to stare the devil down and command him to leave, just as the Lord Jesus did when the devil tempted Him in the wilderness.
   Some people say fear can be a good thing, but the Bible says in 2 Timothy 1:7, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  Well, fear is poison to your faith in God.  How much poison is good for you?  Just a little?  NO!  There is NO amount of poison that is good for you.  Think about it: if GOD has not given us the spirit of fear, then WHO HAS?  That’s right!  Satan is the author of fear, and he’s using it right now trying to get YOU to forfeit your authority and hand it over to him.  Don’t make the mistake so many others before you have.  Make sure you’re in a right standing before God, and that isn’t hard to do.
   Jesus Christ has already paid the price for the punishment for your sins, because He and the heavenly Father want you to be righteous.  Become a disciple of Christ Jesus if you haven’t already.  It is written in James 4:7, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  That means when you’re right before God, the devil is deathly afraid of you.  Yes, you read that right, when you’re submitted to God, the devil is afraid of YOU!!  Get into God’s Word and learn about your authority granted you from God, then STAND YOUR GROUND!