18 June 2023
Two-Minute Features | 25 June 2023 | 11 June 2023

Resisting the Devil, Part 3 (TMF:2120)

Friday, June 23, 2023
Peace to Live By: Resisting the Devil, Part 3 (TMF:2120) - Daniel Litton
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       This is because as we have become afraid of the situation, we have immediately handicapped ourselves mentally, and making the right choice from this point forward is going to be difficult, and may not even happen as we have blinded ourselves by our fear. James says the devil will flee from us when we resist him. That certainly makes sense, doesn’t it? If we don’t immediately go into a fear state, with whatever it is, then then quickly he loses his power. How can Satan have power over us if we aren’t afraid of him? Remember Jesus told us to not be afraid of humans with evil plans. Well, so it is with Satan himself. Satan has so much victory and power over people because they immediately become afraid of him. They become afraid of a bad thought. They quiver over some seemingly bad luck that has been presented to them. All people have negative situations come up in life. And yet, all people do not respond the same. There are people of whom nothing really ever seems to bother them, or if it does bother them, it is only for a short period of time.

Resisting the Devil, Part 2 (TMF:2119)

Thursday, June 22, 2023
Peace to Live By: Resisting the Devil, Part 2 (TMF:2119) - Daniel Litton
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       When we are are really resisting, we know that his ways won’t work for us. We have knowledge. We have studied the Word of God and know how God says to live. Having become familiar with what God says, we are able to live in a way that is pleasing to him. This resisting, however, is not burdensome. It’s not really a struggle for us. It’s only a struggle if we are making it hard for ourselves. What I mean is that resisting is really surrendering. It’s really all in the Giving Up Control method I have been discussing. The issue for us comes when we get all afraid of what the devil may be doing. One a smaller scale, when we get afraid of a thought he presents to us, we immediately suppress that thought out of our awareness. The problem with this is that the thought is going to have to come back up later in time because instead of dealing with it, we became afraid of it and pushed it down within ourselves. On a grander scale, if we immediately become anxious about a particular life-situation this will work certainly only to cause us to self-sabotage.

Resisting the Devil, Part 1 (TMF:2118)

Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Peace to Live By: Resisting the Devil, Part 1 (TMF:2118) - Daniel Litton
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       The devil’s way is the shortcut. It is the way that gets us that instant gratification. It’s the reward his way brings us. It’s just that this reward is for the moment, and once the moment has passed, there is no more reward but rather disappointment. There is disappointment because we are left feeling we didn’t do things right. We are felt feeling that we should have taken another approach. We have to see the others who did in fact do what we should have done and are now prosperous as a result. So, we are to resist the devil. What does the word “Resist” really mean? We could say resist is to confront, defy, forgo, refuse, repel, turn down, and stand up to. The point is that we are not just caving in to what Satan says to us. We are not simply following his ways without thinking about what the consequences might be. We are smarter than that. When we are are really resisting, we know that his ways won’t work for us. We have knowledge.

Freedom in Our Worship & Service (TMF:2117)

Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Peace to Live By: Freedom in Our Worship & Service (TMF:2117) - Daniel Litton
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       As I’ve been talking about with the Law of Liberty (one of the methods for this study), we are free to worship and serve God how we please. If we want to spend twenty minutes with him in prayer everyday, we will. If not, that’s our choice. It becomes a problem for us when we give ourselves a guilt trip over not following rules we have created in our minds and of which are not from God. What about the other thing James said? What is resisting the devil? If we are to resist the devil, that must mean he has some pretty enticing plans. He is wanting us to do things which are outside of God’s will, to work in ways that, one, won’t work, and two, will hurt us in the long run. The devil wants us to be unforgiving. The devil wants us to be sexually immoral, do drugs, drink too much alcohol, have friends we shouldn’t have, cheat on schoolwork, cheat on our taxes, cheat on our spouse, not give our children the time and gifts that we should, indeed, whatever you want to place here that is wrong—whatever doesn’t really help us in the long run.

What are We Not Submitting to, Then? (TMF:2116)

Monday, June 19, 2023
Peace to Live By: What are We Not Submitting to, Then? (TMF:2116) - Daniel Litton
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       What are we not submitting to, then? We aren’t submitting to man made rules, rules that people at our church or within our community of believers say we need to follow to be pleasing to God. We aren’t submitting to external rules we have made for ourselves, like that we have to read five chapters of the Bible everyday or pray for twenty minutes everyday for God to be happy. We aren’t mind reading God. What mind reading means is assuming we know what God thinks and what God wants from us throughout the day. We don’t live by notions where we think, “Well, I think God wants me to do this or that. I think God wants me to pray for twenty minutes everyday.” That’s you, not God. As I’ve been talking about with the Law of Liberty (one of the methods for this study), we are free to worship and serve God how we please. If we want to spend twenty minutes with him in prayer everyday, we will. If not, that’s our choice.