This is part 2 of the first entry. I had wanted to talk about this in the first enrty but I went in another direction.

So, if God is in control, and His hand is in everything in our lives, then what about our sin and it's consequenses? Those were the rest of the thoughts swirling around this morning. Satan has to ask permission to touch us. But can we give him permission ourselves?

Job was a man who was blameless before God. In Job 1 we see that God had put a hedge of protection around him. I think we can't miss the correlation here. When we are living a blameless (not perfect) life we recieve all of God's blessings (don't read that as material things). And yes, God can still decide to let Satan take a crack at you so you can be a witness to the world of his power and strength. But with those things aside, do we ever give Satan our blessing? Let me go this way for a minute and beware, it might get confusing.

Eph. 4:26-27 says if we let the sun go down on our anger we give the devil a foothold. That looks to me like Satan can get a backdoor into our lives. And just so you know I am speaking from experience here. I have given him a foothold in the past. And yes, you should run screaming (to God) if you think he has one on you. It is pure torture.

My thinking goes like this. When we are living righteously, which means we are not living in any blatent, unconfessed sin, then we are in God's protection. Proverbs 2:7-8, "He holds victory in store for the upright, He is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of this faithful one". Job was still under God's protection when he was afflicted. Satan still had to ask to touch him and God told him exactly what he could and couldn't do. But I believe we can put ourselves in danger when we dangle our foot over the egde of the wall, so to speak. When we just dabble in anger, resentment, bitterenss, immorality then we are giving Satan access to part of us. He will grab on to that foot and he will not let us go. Do you realize when someone as strong as Satan has a hold on your foot, you cannot walk anywhere or even go anywhere. I don't think it's called a foothold by mistake. You may know what I am talking about. And I sincerly believe that once you give him a little part of you (I don't really have to forgive, obey, serve, give) then he takes more and more until you are consumed. So why doesn't God just swat him away? For one thing, if He did, he would be condoning our sin. Another big thing, He wants us to learn our lesson. We will never experience all of the wonderful things He has to offer when we are serving Satan. Yes I did say that. We cannot serve two masters. We have bo ever-vigilant about not letting the evil one take over in our lives. I believe that a large percentage of Christians today are doing this, but that's another issue. I hope you don't hear me say "I have arrived at perfection" but I am just wanting anyone out there who reads this to possibly learn from my mistakes.