Saul of Tarsus knew well what many of us are coming to understand: “There abide these three…faith, hope and love…and the greatest of these is love”. I’ve heard many sermons on this topic. I’ve attended a lot of Bible studies where this verse was the subject. Vast numbers of articles have been written about 1 Corinthians 13. You’ve probably seen your share of them too. But recently I’ve done some thinking about how our enemy wants to attack my life and yours. If the three most abiding things in life are these, then it makes sense to me that the devil wants to attack us in these critical areas. Think about it…..he attacks faith by trying to make you a cynic. The world nowadays is full of the skeptical; some intellectuals, some downright atheists; all enemies of faith. And if you and I are not careful, even we will fall prey to the enemy of faith….skepticism. You know what I mean…in our finances we grow sceptical of God’s provision. In our health we undermine the truth of God’s care. In our future we grow uncertain that God is in control. Skeptics all are we! Satan also attacks hope by making us a cynic. I’ve heard myself many times and you have heard yourself, too. If you’ve been close enough to me you’ve probably heard me , too! It’s only human, we’ve come to tell ourselves. What really we are doing is believing the lie and joining with the enemy to form a negative pact against hope….the belief that God knows and wants the best for us and will bring it to pass because of His zeal to perform His destiny in us. None of us thinks about it in terms of becoming the ally of the devil, but isn’t that what it is , in truth? And the greatest of these three is love. For certain the attack against it by Satan is to make us a critic. The critical spirit will eat us alive and destroy any relationship where its ugliness is allowed to grow. I’ve watched it in marriages and I’ve seen it ruin the relationships of lifelong friends. We just cannot allow it to exist in our conversations (to the face or behind the back!) If these three will cause us to live in the fullness of God’s blessing, join me in the defeat of the enemy of our souls by never becoming a skeptic, a cynic, or a critic.
