LifeLink Devotions

Monday, January 9, 2023

I am a builder. My grandson Liam was a destroyer. He destroyed every single wood block tower I ever tried to build with him. I am sure that at his age of 16 months I was also a destroyer. It’s a phase we all go through. Liam’s older brother Aidan moved past the destroyer stage and became a builder. Anytime Aidan wanted to build something with blocks or train tracks, he asked if Liam could be removed from the room. He knew if he wasn’t Liam would come and destroy anything he built. Not in anger, but to him it was about as much fun as anything else he could do. It wouldn’t be long and he would also begin to find more pleasure in building than he did in destroying.

The point I want to make comes with a HUGE disclaimer that my grandson is NOT to be personally compared to the Enemy of our souls. But the spiritual analogy of building and destroying is appropriate. When we came to Christ for salvation, God made each of us builders. Satan is the destroyer. Every attempt we make to add another building block of spiritual character to our lives is met with a charge of the Enemy from across the room to knock us over. From the very conception of Christ in us at our conversion, the roaring lion is on the prowl seeking to destroy us.

2 Peter 1:5-8  “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When Liam sought to destroy a tower of blocks, he did it for fun. There is nothing funny about what Satan does. He is not playing a game. He is avenging his defeat at the cross. He is out to intentionally discourage, defeat, and destroy every person who has dedicated their lives to Jesus Christ.

His tactics are not always obvious. He will attack us mostly at the point of past weakness or failure. He will find the point of your tower of character that has one block slightly off center and he will work there to de-stabilize the whole thing.

Maybe he is attacking your goodness so that you’re more concerned with self than others.

Maybe he’s pushing on the block of knowledge, so that you stop growing in your understanding of who God is and His plan for your life.

Maybe he’s adding emotional stress to the current overload of life you are experiencing so he can make you lose self-control.

It’s possible that he has convinced you to give up and not persevere. Satan would love to get you to that point so that you surrender to self-serving sin and forfeit your godliness.

It’s absolutely a certainty that the Enemy wants to stop the spread of love, and he will do that by shaking the tower of your character to the point of collapse so that you take your life back into your own hands and start building on a different foundation than faith.

But there is hope. Back in 2 Peter 1:3 we were given a promise of power to be able to build without fear of destruction. The power of God to make us stand is greater than the power of Satan to destroy. We have been guilty of not removing the Enemy from the territory of our tower. We have let him into the room where we are building.

We let him in through a variety of holes in our armor. We watch the wrong kinds of movies and television shows that let Satan influence our thinking and our world view, putting fleshly lusts ahead of godliness. We listen to music that bombards our minds with false philosophies and worldly pursuits. We surrender to the influence of friends so we can feel accepted when we should be the ones influencing them to be accepted in God’s family. We build treasures on this earth which will eventually perish when we could be building treasures in heaven that will be there waiting for us when we arrive.

Satan is attempting to knock down everything God is building in your life. But remember that we serve a God who builds and rebuilds even after destruction. When the tower falls, no matter how hard and how far, the foundation of faith can never be destroyed. Get busy rebuilding.

Pastor John