2 Timothy 2:1-5: Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus. You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them. And athletes cannot win the prize unless they follow the rules.

Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 6 that we’re not our own; we have been bought with the price of Jesus’ blood. He goes on to say that we must now choose to glorify God in our bodies—which belong to Him. Satan loves to tempt believers who either ignore or are ignorant of this truth which Paul taught the Corinthians. Satan enjoys provoking us to the point where we’re disobedient to God—our wrong actions then incite God against us.

This is the reason Paul warned young Timothy to endure hardship as a good soldier. Since we’re soldiers of the Lord and are engaged in a spiritual battle, we must guard our hearts against becoming entangled in the affairs of this temporal life. Remember, the Word tells us to live by faith and to walk by faith. We can only fulfill this if we’re keeping the Word of God and honoring it when circumstances push us into reacting in our flesh.

Satan will use the hardness of situations as a weapon to tempt us to harden our hearts against God’s Word or His will in a battle, that he might bring a schism between God and us. We face the pitfalls of living in a fallen world. Therefore, we must be wise as serpents, but remain harmless as doves; we must continually keep our eyes on Jesus and keep our hearts attentive to God, lest we succumb to the strategies of the Devil and sin.

It’s not that God is tempting us with evil and laughing at us when we hit “a wall” in our lives. Rather than blame God for our problems, let’s look at this in a different light. Satan was very wise when he caused Adam to sin and placed all of mankind under the curse of sin. The curse of sin has caused every person that has ever been born, including Jesus, to experience great anguish and hardship. Satan was elated to discover that Adam and Eve had fallen for his feeble lies. Since that time, Satan has used the adversity of living in a fallen world and the hardness of trials to turn people’s hearts against the Lord during a moment of weakness or anguish. (Job 1-2).

If you allow hardness to turn your heart against God’s will and His Word, then you open the door for Satan to bring you into a place of an offense and cause you to sin against God in your greatest hour of need. We must be willing to submit to God, resist the Devil, and he must flee. Guard your heart against hardness toward God because we live in a world that offers us hard battles. This world is not our permanent home. Be encouraged; have faith in Christ.  —submitted by Pastor Asa Dockery, US