They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
Romans 1:25 HCSB

The devil uses several tactics to try to get us away from God and over on his side. One he loves to use is distraction. He likes to use issues around us to distract us from God, where our main focus should always be.

Deception is one of the devil’s oldest tactics. It was first used in Genesis chapter 3 in the Garden of Eden. He began by causing Eve to doubt what God had told them. He begins by asking if God told them they couldn’t eat from any tree in the garden. When the woman explained that they may eat from any of the trees except the tree in the middle and then went on to say that God said, “You must not eat it or touch it or you will die.”

The serpent then stated in verse 4, “No! You will not die,” He refuted what God had told them woman and was trying to get her to believe a lie. Then he enticed her to eat by saying she would be like God if she ate from it.

One thing I can say about the devil is he hasn’t changed his tactics. He’s still using the same old lies today. Is that really what God said? Does that pertain to you? Don’t you think God will overlook that sin? If you serve such a loving God, He wouldn’t punish you or discipline you for that, would He?

Lie after lie, but these lies don’t affect us if we don’t fall for them. Our Scripture passage says however, we get into trouble when we exchange the truth of God for a lie. God is the truth, and He is the only truth we need. The devil will distract us however with world events, things going in on in neighborhoods, or with our family or friends.

Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t be concerned about these things, but I am saying you should give God the first and the best of your attention and trust Him to handle these things and to let you know when your help is needed. I am also saying you should study your Bible more than you should concern yourself with distractions.

This is because as we discussed yesterday, the only way to know when someone is lying to you is by knowing the truth. If you don’t know the truth of a matter, you can’t discern a lie. The only way for us, as Christians to know the truth is by studying God’s word. We need to consider the Bible as our source for solving our problems.

And above all, we need to use the Bible as a guide of how to live our lives. We need to refer to it when we are making life-changing decisions. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not to lean on our own understanding, but to acknowledge God in all we do and He will guide us on the right path.

We need to obey His commands.

We often believe the devil’s lies because they are what we want to hear. We want to hear we will never be held accountable for our sins. We want to believe God will overlook our sins. We want to believe we will face no consequences for our sins. That’s just not true. Those are lies the devil tells us. Just as he lied to Eve in the Garden of Eden, he still lies to us today.

When we believe his lies, we are simply exchanging the truth of God for a lie. Adam and Eve didn’t physically die after eating the forbidden fruit, but they died spiritually. They were banished from the garden. They had to work the land in order to get food. Eve experienced pain during childbirth and these curses have been passed down through the generations.

Don’t exchange the devil’s lies for God’s truth. No good will come of that.

Have a great day!