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“I read a most suggestive thing the other day. A great menagerie had been sold. There was a good deal of straw that had been, at one time or other, used as temporary bedding for the wild beasts. That straw was bought by a man who owned a livery stable. When he put into the stalls the straw on which a lion had crouched, the horses that had never seen a lion in their lives were uneasy and restless and would not go into the stall. It was an instinctive dread of the enemy. Now, friends, I say this: it is possible for a conscience to be so responsive to the voice of God, so delicately adjusted to the Word of God and its claims, that when even a thing you do not know to be a sin, an enemy you have not even come in full sight of, shall draw near, there shall be the scent of it, the disturbance, the arousing call of it that alarms you and delivers you from the sin, even while the enemy is putting the trap across the road in front of you.”- Herbert F. Stevenso

The devil is cunning. He knows just how to dangle and disguise sin in the most deceptive ways, even beyond our human imagination. David, a man after God’s own heart, failed to stand against sin when tempted by the devil. To think we can withstand, on our own, his efforts to destroy our homes, our marriages, and our lives is prideful and foolish.

Only God is capable of defeating the devil, and it will only be through His power and with His word that we are able to do the same. Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, when tempted by sin, used the Word of God to resist and defeat Satan. (Matthew 4) 

God wants to fight our battles for us, but we must have a personal relationship with Him. We must be humble enough to admit that we need Him and so familiar with His voice that we recognize when He speaks. 

Only through this kind of relationship will we be able to detect and overcome the disguised attempts by the enemy to lure us into sin and keep us from living the abundant lives God has for us.