“A man
travelling through the country came to a large city, very rich and splendid. He
looked at it and said to his guide: “This must be a very righteous people, for
I can only see one little devil in this great city.
“The guide
replied: “You do not understand, Sir. This city is so perfectly given up to wickedness,
corruption, degradation and abomination of every kind that it requires but one
devil to keep them all in subjection.”
“Travelling
on a little further, the man came to a rugged path and saw an old man trying to
get up the hillside, surrounded by seven great, big coarse looking devils. “Why”,
says the traveler, “this must be a tremendously wicked old man! Only see how
many devils there are around him!”
“This”,
replied the guide, “is the only righteous man in the country; and there are
seven of the biggest devils trying to turn him out of his path, and they all
cannot do it.”
-
Chinese Fable
Does it
make you wonder what strategies the old man used to make himself impervious to
the influence of the adversary? I thought of listing some helpful ways we could
do to achieve the same result, such as seeking after righteousness through
prayer, scriptures, temple, Church, family home evening, clean and worthy
thoughts, service……
As I reflected
on these many things, I remembered reading a book years ago by a Christian
woman who suggested every Christian should pray daily for a shield of faith to
be placed around them to withstand the fiery darts of the adversary. I thought
this, for sure, was the best way. Even today I pray for this shield of faith
and it has served me well, I am sure.
In the
early hours of this morning, something far more powerful came to my mind. The
true path to repel the adversary is by his arch enemy, the Christ. The most-sure
way is allowing the light of Christ to sear our consciousness and sharpen our
focus so that before us is always the one and only path to salvation. Where
there is light, there cannot be darkness.
This is the
greatest repellant we have against him who cannot generate light and can only
turn our lives into ashes. He cannot
stand the light, he cowers in darkness and feeds on the energy it gives him but
there will come a day when he will be cast into the pit devoid of any power and
be just a shell of his former self (Isaiah 14:12-20).
The
imposter can lie, cheat and imitate but he will never be the Christ. He cannot
light our path, he can only blind. All the things I listed surely do enable us
to keep our focus on the Saviour but they are ‘doing things’ and they can
easily fall by the wayside. What is more powerful and lasting is allowing Christ
into our hearts. It means to develop a love that burns deep into our soul. A
fire that burns, gives light.
The Saviour
stands at the gates of heaven with open arms to receive us.
Be the
force that the devil can reckon with but can never win…..
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: The Light of Christ by Douglas Bentley)
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