Changing your perspective & knowing your enemy

Part B from yesterday’s post – could your fear be from not knowing the goodness of God enough and not knowing enough about your enemy?

We need to change our perspective from scared to TRUST. After all, "doesn't the world getting darker mean there is actually a greater opportunity for light to stand out?" ~ Perry Noble

B)  Here is a look at who God is and who Satan is and their attributes – what they are really like and the power each has.

1. God is Creator – “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” John 1:1-3 & “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
Satan was created by God – “Now the serpent (satan) was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made….” Genesis 3:1 Rather than create his aim is “to steal and kill and destroy;” John 10:10a, Also, “his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon (which mean destroyer).” Revelation 9:11

Would you trust God who creates or one who seeks to destroy not only your joy, but your soul?

2.  God is Almighty – He is all powerful, all knowing, everywhere present and is love, BUT
Satan is limited in his power to what God allows. See passages like here in Job 1:12 where he gets limited permission from God; “Then the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him." So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.”

3.  God is truth and cannot lie – “in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,” Titus 1:2 and Jesus said in John 14:6 that He is the TRUTH, “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” BUT,
Satan is the Father of lies and has been a liar since his fall; Talking about Satan, Jesus says, “…(Satan) does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44

Would you trust God who can’t lie or the one who is the originator of lies?

4.  God is LOVE – True love originates with God. That type of love in 1 Corinthians 13 that is selfless and seeks the good of others is impossible apart from God. In 1 John 4:7-10 John tells us that, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (die in our place, our substitute) for our sins.” God loves you enough to die in your place. Satan on the other hand is a murderer. Jesus said in the same verse where He called him a liar that, “…he was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him…”John 8:44

Can you trust someone who would die in your place and love you when you were a sinner and against Him and who provided for you to live with Him in a place better than anything you can imagine (Heaven on a New Earth) or the one who made Jesus death necessary by murdering Adam and Eve by getting them to sin?

Trust in God to keep His promises and watch Him be faithful; look at Him, His character and trusting in Him will get easier as you grow in your faith. Don’t trust the devil or your sin nature, but instead trust God!

(Tomorrow we will look at a couple more comparisons and the conclusions each provides)