Willisburg Bulletin 9.29.24
BREAKING SATAN’S BAND
This past week we had a wonderful series of lessons on grace from Raymond and he made a comment one night that struck me, so I started digging. As he was giving the invitation to come forward if you needed help with anything, he said, “if Satan surrounds you, we’ll come. We will bust up that ring and protect you.” That got me thinking, do we actually do this? Do we suffocate the devil out of our family circle or do we let him feast on our brethren? Often it’s the weak or babes in Christ he will go for first. Do we hold on with strength to fight with them or do we let them go thinking “he won’t come after me now that he has ahold of so and so,” “they need to learn how to battle Satan” or “i don’t know how to help them, sorry. Do we love and encourage our weak brethren and grab ahold of them before they fall or do we let them fall and look down on them for doing such? Do we say we are there to help or do we assume they’re good and can handle it? Probably quite often we say we are there to help, but are we really? How do we show that we do? If a brother or sister in Christ really is struggling with something, sadly, Satan knows that probably better than we do. Sometimes that’s because that brother isn’t open and telling us he needs help, but it also could be that we are closed off and don’t have look as if we have a helpful attitude.
HELPING BREAK THE GRIP
If Satan has encircled a sibling, we need to go and break up that band that has a hold on our family! So, how do we do that? The first step is ensuring we are in this spiritual battle together. If we haven’t made the promise to serve God, we won’t help each other get to Heaven. When we are baptized, we vowed to God completely service, which includes unity of the church. This involves all of us as members, working together like a chain linked as one. When our arms are locked together with God as our strengthen, we will break Satan’s grip (Phil 4:13). Another way to show we are here to battle Satan is to ensure we have our own armor of God on, which enables us to fight off the devil. We will have the sword to cut through Satan’s lies and just like we talked about last week, the shield will guard us and our struggling brother from Satan’s darts. When we lock shields, Satan has to break down a lot more targets than just a brother who may already have his guard down. Additionally, we are called to bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2). What does that encompass? When we know our brother is sinking, we have a duty to help! We have many examples where the church family, dropped everything to be there, some even selling property to have money to give brethren. I feel often, we don’t feel the sense of duty as the first century Christians did. We leave it up to the government aids or their families (yes, there is a place), but we also their family. It is a sense of comfort when you know you have no only your family behind you, but especially your Christian family! We can’t bear many of the burdens alone, and there is a reason God tells us to reach out to our sister in Christ too. Also, Christ has given us each gifts. I know everyone has a certain gift that would help a struggling sibling. Each person can do something, no matter the size! Remember got can take the smallest of seeds and make the biggest impacts. Some whatever it is you can do, do it. Whether it be cooking, sending cards, texting, visiting, giving rides, or even holding each other accountable to strengthen against a sin. Satan will be our number one enemy when we are doing right and it’s a lifelong battle. Yet, God gave us a family to help protect one another. It’s a way to show our faith and honoring God, especially when our brother needs a hand.