Testimony: A 10-Day Devotional By Gloria GaynorSample

Man Of Peace There are so many Scriptures in which God’s people are told to “fear not.” Even though the enemy of our souls is constantly at work seeking to lead us away from God to cause us some kind of emotional, mental, spiritual or physical harm, we can rest securely in the protection of the Lord. So on one hand, we are told to be vigilant; but on the other hand, we are told to “fear not.” There is a huge difference between fear and a healthy respect for inherent danger. We are told to have that respect for the enemy because he is more powerful than we are even though his power does not begin to measure up to the power and protection of our God. We have to be vigilant to walk with the Lord and not to unwittingly remove ourselves from under His protection and guidance. We can often become like teenagers, thinking that we have become strong enough, smart enough or good enough that we no longer need the protection of our Father. But the enemy is not only strong but patient and spends time learning our weaknesses with plans to use them against us when we least expect it and are least capable of warding off an attack. He and his minions work overtime to keep us from receiving the blessing sent to us by the Lord. He will entice us to go against God’s laws for comfort, convenience and instant gratification, disguising the actions as harmless fun or pleasure. He will entice us to be lazy, careless, thoughtless, hateful and mean, retaliating against people for perceived injustices, even though the Lord says, “vengeance is mine.”(Deut. 32:35) The devil will use unwitting people in our lives to give us seemingly good advice. Sometimes that advice is directly opposed to what the Lord would have us do. The enemy will use people in our lives to encourage or incite us to react to all kinds of insignificant words and deeds. Often in a moment of vulnerability, when we are sad or tired or not feeling particularly charitable, we find it necessary to react to these things in ways that are less than Christlike. Sometimes we are tempted to move to fix things we have already asked the Lord to handle for us, but we become impatient; and the enemy convinces us that God didn’t hear us or He doesn’t care. Daniel 10:13 speaks of one of Satan's cohorts hindering the angel Gabriel from getting to Daniel with help from God. Of course, Gabriel was able to get past him and do God’s bidding for Daniel; but this kind of thing is obviously not uncommon from the enemy of our souls. We need to be aware and constantly in prayer and walking close to God purposing to walk in His will, Word and ways so as to not to become impatient and unwittingly remove ourselves from His protection, guidance, care and provision. We need to pray to the Lord for discernment for weighing advice from anyone. We need to be sure that any advice or council we accept and act on, whether personal or professional, is from godly council because it is true that sometimes Satan comes as a “Man of Peace.”