SATAN'S FOE

 

After a rather harrowing week I had a personal insight into the whole premise of Job’s trials which is this: how much easier it is to remain true to your convictions when all is well in your little world. This of course is the test of time and this place. 

 

The prince of this world, and we all know who he is, will have us in pursuit of eutopia which this life cannot give. He drives us with a yoke of ‘expectations’ we can very seldom fulfil. He wants to wear us out so that he can shred us into pieces by the realisation that this life is not worth living so that he can sift us as wheat and bring us into his ‘granary’. When Jesus warned the Nephites, “Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat” (3 Nephi 18:18), He was not only teaching the same message to them that He had expressed to Peter (Luke 22:31) but also to us……because the Book of Mormon was written for our day. 

 

I have mentioned once or twice that I grew up in Croatia and that I have witnessed wheat harvests….I have seen wheat sifted and would not wish to experience it. It is a process where the wheat is fed into a big machine to have its’ husk stripped off to reveal the grain. The Saviour’s wisdom in applying this metaphor to Satan’s attempt to strip us of all hope, faith and perseverance is priceless.  He will do anything to steal our spiritual identity, to kill our faith in God and destroy our commitment to Christ. 

 

Very often we refer to Satan as our foe but I propose that WE are HIS foe. We, the strong, the valiant, the noble sons and daughters of God. We are the foe of evil and destructive forces of faith because we bear the image of the Son of God in our countenance. We are the bearers of righteousness and hope because we are children of Christ. And when He comes He will crush the enemy at His feet and there will be no more pain and no more sorrow and no more death. HE will do this: the Good Shepherd, the strength of Israel, the King of Righteousness, the Rock of our Salvation,  the Great I AM…..

 

Let the everlasting hills and mountains

Hear Thy exalted voice;

That the ends of the earth

Might proclaim Thy eternal fame

And know the strength of Thy salvation.

May all who hear, walk in Thy holy name

And seek Thy mercy and Thy grace;

And may those found worthy

Be endowed with Thy image

In the countenance of their face.

I bequest to you my trust and my faith

And fly to you with my arms of faith.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Arms of Faith by Youngsung Kim)