The number 7 is mentioned in the bible 490 times…maybe more,
of course the number seven can mean nothing more than seven but mostly in the
words of God it is speaking to wholeness, it is a number representing completeness,
divine perfection or something that is finished by Him.
Jesus is that divine perfection and all that is represented
by the number 7.
The devil is 666.
The devil will never measure up. Yes we are in a spiritual battle, yes he
roars around like a lion searching to devour us up, but the devil can only do
what God has given him permission to do…and he knows it.
God is stronger. God
is greater. We should live like we know
that, that our hope is in God’s power, not that we know the devil is roaring
around to devour us.
I hear people saying things like “the devil is attacking me”
…maybe it’s so, and yes it can be true, but mostly we can do enough trouble
ourselves, without him doing anything, yes, causing our own trouble, and I’m
pretty sure he loves that! We make our
plans around God and because we love Him or because we believe He is calling us
to it, we think that the only wrench in will be the devil, but what if it is
our pride, our own self; me do it, look at me or perhaps it is an error in response,
we become affected by a situation and we react instead of respond. Responding, this is our responsibility to our
faith, it is the basis for our free will; the responses we make. When we make the wrong responses, not taking
enough time to think things through or basing it on wrong information or letting
our imaginations over-power the truth, we overreact. Not being affected and making correct
responses… that is hard; admitting that it’s not the circumstances, or the other
people, or things or the devil; it is me…me forgetting what is true.
There is a word I learned from someone who crossed my path
recently, Avidya…in general it means
we respond in ways where we are “forgetting to remember what is true.” I think
most of our troubles could be avoided if we would only stop long enough to remember
what is true; true with the situation, true with the people involved and true
with what God says is true. If you can, as much as it depends on you, ask
yourself the question, ‘in this situation what is true?’
There is a fine line between realizing spiritual warfare and
giving the devil the credit for our struggle, when we do the latter we are
giving him that glory; don’t you think he loves every time he is
mentioned? Aside from everything else,
this fact remains, it wasn’t the devil that said we would have struggles, God
said it…in this world you will have trouble.
We love a powerful God, let’s live knowing that. Fight the
good fight, don’t over-react, respond well and give God the glory… of course
it’s not easy and our struggles won’t end but they will tell a better story.
Remembering what is true…I love that.
