by Fr. Michael Wood –
Brethren, be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, steadfast in the faith.
Satan leads us astray us in many ways, but “we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11). We know he masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), trying to make evil look good. We know he manipulates with false guilt, exploits natural weaknesses, and twists Scripture. We know he deceives and distracts and destroys. We can overcome the temptations of satan, because “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
We know too that satan is a leader, he can and does use other people to be our friends and lead us into quite complicated situations where we compromise ourselves and give him the opportunity to accuse us before God. Those leadership ploys may well be his most useful tool because they are not at all obvious. He can lead us into business situations that become difficult, leading us to lie and worse, without ever in the slightest setting out to do so. He can lead us into disastrous relationships that cause us to commit offenses.
We may think that we chose the direction, but that may be far from the truth. Satan or rather his minions can work out quite accurately our weaknesses because we have previously displayed them for them to see. They can then take the lead and we don’t necessarily realize that we are following into a spiritually dangerous place. He truly does walk about, seeking whom he may devour. And we must indeed be vigilant even in seemingly innocuous situations.
The world is a place of snares that can be blindly walked into. So be sober, be vigilant because the adversary is looking to lead you into sin.
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FB post 2/10/2023 – (Minor stylistic edits to enhance readability made by blog editors.)
