‘Resist the devil and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7)

Every Christian believer must expect to be visited by Satan; he is our adversary; he is always watching for an opportunity to injure us. He first tempts us to sin, and then accuses us of sinning. He misrepresents every subject. He endeavours to make the world appear lovely, sin trifling, death terrible. He generates hard thoughts of God; he perverts God’s Holy Word, and leads believers into bondage.

His fiery darts are very terrible. The most blasphemous, horrible and unnatural thoughts are often thrown into the mind by him; and then he lays them to our charge, and distresses our souls on account of them. But we are called upon to resist him steadfast in the faith, believing what God is to us; what Christ has done for us; what He has promised to give us; and that God will bruise Satan under our feet shortly.

The triumph of this wicked one is short lived; for we shall overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of His testimony. Look to Jesus, call upon your God, and apply the blood and righteousness of Jesus to all his charges. He is mighty, but your Jesus is ALMIGHTY. Take this shield of faith, and you shall quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

Temptations everywhere annoy;
And sins and snares my peace destroy:
Lord, let thy presence be my stay,
And guard me in this dangerous way.

THE DAILY REMEMBRANCER by James Smith (1802-1862)

Journal Jottings

[Continued from yesterday] ‘Under such circumstances, I penned the following meditation. “O my Saviour, thou didst grant me much of thy presence on the Lord’s day, especially when I least expected it. For when I began to speak of thy wondrous love with a cold heart, and a disordered mind, how sweetly didst thou break in upon me, and feed me with that love, of which I was speaking. Let that love evermore constrain me, to devote myself entirely to thee, and to view myself as thy chosen property. May I be enabled habitually to say, ‘My beloved is mine, and I am his.'”‘