Precious Paper

Our community is full of talented musicians and singers and in the past year all the churches have started to meet for a community-wide fifth Sunday sing. It is a wonderful time to get to fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ and praise His name together. When I got home I was thinking about how each one of us has our song of praise to God, the song of life. The paper it is written on is precious and fragile, but the words highlight our biggest accomplishments and reveal the steadfast hand of the Lord during the dark and rocky times. During the hard times of life it isn't easy to stay resilient when the Devil continually tries to knock you down. The devil has it in for Christians and wants to defeat us at all cost. 1 Peter 5:8 says, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:"Do you think it's a coincidence that the devil seeks to wear your mind down at some of the most vulnerable times in your life? No coincidence at all, the devil wants to make you doubtful, afraid and disconnected from the truths of the word of God. So how do you rise above and win at the mind games the devil wants to play you might ask. Stand your ground and continue to stand your ground! In Galations 5:1 Paul instructs us to "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." The Lord often has to speak to me with visual analogies for me to understand things better. I wondered what comparison there could be to understand how the devil tries to wear down a Christian's mind and he showed me. Picture a precious and fragile paper laying on a table underneath a ceiling fan and each time the fan circles the paper cascades onto the floor. The floor is not a safe place for such an important and delicate paper, on the floor it could be lost or destroyed. Each time the paper falls the individual picks the paper up and places it back on the table. You can only imagine after this constant action there comes a point where the individual gets frustrated. The devil wants to push us to this point mentally where we finally give up and give into the doubt, fear and lies. But, as a christian we have to learn to stand up to the devil and put the precious and fragile paper in a safe place because it is our life we are taking about. Don't you remember that beautiful song of praise that God is writing. Stand up against the devil and don't let him have your mind or your life they are God's.
" Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. " James 4:7
"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. " Romans 12:2