A lie that is sown in the soil of truth is easier to accept
than one that is outright falsehood. The fact that they have a bit of
truth laced in makes them convenient to believe, but they are just as damning
to entertain as an inconvenient lie. Moreover, convenient lies are often
easy to entertain because of the circumstances you are in.
“4 And the serpent said unto the woman,
Ye shall not surely die:” Genesis 3:4
An inconvenient lie is difficult to entertain. If you have
been raised in a Christian home; odds are good that when Satan tries to tell
you that “God’s not real” you’re not going to entertain it very long. It
is too great of an inconvenience to entertain it, and there is no truth in it.
So to the church goer “God is not real” is an inconvenient lie, and to the
Christian who is both attending church and born again it is almost pointless to
mention.
The greatest example of how to deal with the devil was given
by The Example himself, namely Jesus Christ. The scripture tells us that
if we draw nigh to God he will draw nigh to you. (James 4:8) From this
scripture one can deduce the following: the closer we press towards God, the
closer he presses towards us. This is truth, so it stands to reason that
the closer you are to God and His Son Jesus (for they are one) the closer you
are to the light, and common sense will yield that the closer you are to light
the less likely you are to find no darkness. Jesus was as close to God as
any man had ever been, for he was God. So when the devil came to bug him,
what did the devil use? He used convenient lies. The devil told
Jesus Christ (paraphrasing): “You’re the Son of God, make these stones
bread.”(With no food for 40 days Christ must have been hungry). True, he
was the Son of God, true he could make the stones bread, but that was not the
will of the Father. It was a convenient lie to believe because of
circumstances, but false nonetheless. He then told Christ (paraphrasing):
“Jump off this cliff here, the scripture says that angels will catch
you.” True the scripture promises that, and true, God could catch him,
but it was not the will of the Father, and he was not going to tempt God; again
convenient to believe but ultimately false. Finally he said to Jesus, and
this is what he is trying to accomplish with every lie he tells (paraphrasing
again): “Look at all the land and kingdoms of men. I will give it to you
if you worship me.” True the devil has power to give things of the world
(only the power that God allows though), but the world does not satisfy and it
can never measure up to what God can give; moreover, Satan’s ultimate game is
to: steal, kill, and destroy. Many a man has left God to serve the devil
because Satan promised him the world; only to find that Satan over promises and
under performs. Through this scripture in found in Matthew 4 we can see
that Satan will tempt with the convenient lie; and often tempts with it.
He will tell you: “You feel alone so you must be alone” FALSE....and
true. True, we all sometimes feel alone, some of us very alone; but that
does not make us alone. God is always right there if we draw nigh.
He will tell you: “You’re so far out in sin there is no way you can live a holy
life” FALSE...and true. True, there is no way you can live holy on your
own will power, but false in the sense you can never live holy. You can
live a godly & holy life through the power of the resurrected Christ.
Jesus made sure of that when he came out of the grave; conquering the devil.
He is consistently telling saints and sinners alike
convenient lies because they are the ones that we are most apt to listen
to. However, every lie no matter convenient or inconvenient is
automatically dispelled by the Word of God. So it behooves us to constantly
draw nigh to God, and be in close fellowship with the Father and the Son.
This will shed light on Satan’s darkness, no matter how convenient or
believable that darkness.
