Ephesians 4:27 NIV and do not give the devil a foothold.

Today I awoke at 1:00 am and couldn’t go back to sleep.  I just laid there tossing and turning and pondering things over in my head.  I got to thinking about this passage of scripture in Ephesians as to what it means.

The past week or so I have been wrestling with some things in my own life that seem to be causing me to have depression, frustrations and feelings of inadequacies.  I have had these before and as usual when I start going through these things I find myself thinking about things that I shouldn’t and then I begin talking in ways that are not in line with who I am in Christ.  It is amazing how it only takes a second or two for a thought to get planted into you and then you begin acting on it. 

As I laid in bed thinking about it I realized that the devil is always ready and waiting to jump on me when my thinking and my emotions and feelings start controlling my life. Listen to what the Amplified Bible says, Ephesians 4:27 AMP Leave no [such] room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him].

We are not to give the devil any opportunity or give him no place in our lives.  He cannot do anything to us unless we allow him to.  He is always looking and listening for an opportunity to get a foothold on our lives.  1 Peter 5:8 CEV Be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack. He is just waiting for you and me to give into a thought or a feeling and then he will start working to lead us down a road that leads to sin in our lives.

The Bible says in Ephesians 6:12 NLT For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. We need to realize it is not people or things of this world that cause us our problems, but it is the devil himself; he goes after the arena of our flesh and our mind because he knows very well that if we will begin thinking on something we will eventually act on it.  Our thinking dictates what we believe and what we believe is what we live.  Our thinking shapes our attitude for living.  The Bible says we are to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.  We have to take those thoughts that are not Godly and cast them out, refuse to think on them.  I find that when I start having trouble with my thoughts I start reading the Word or studying the Word, because the Word will bring freedom to me.

The Bible tells us in James 4:7 NIV Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. We have to first submit ourselves to God, then we can resist the devil and know that he has to flee from us.

Don’t let the devil get a foothold in your life today, determine that you are going to submit to God and give yourself to Him and His Word, then you can be assured that the devil will have no place in your life.

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