we do have an enemy

   Have you ever noticed that when you try to do good, there are often times when it seems like you are being met with resistance? It's like you try to build others up and find yourself doing the exact opposite of the advice you told them that you know to be effective, or you just keep doing things you know you shouldn't be doing and don't want to do, but you seem to do them anyway. It can be a very frustrating thing at times as well as disheartening, but it can be overcome.
   We are told in Ephesians that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." This may sound a little creepy and in ways it is, but it points out that our struggle is not against the people of this world, it's against Satan.
   We really do have an enemy who is constantly working against us. He is not one to be feared, but he is to be recognized as a real being who hates us because he hates the God we serve. The amazing thing is we serve a God who is stronger and who has the power to defeat every one of the devil's schemes. This doesn't mean God doesn't allow the devil to work, but it does mean that we have access to the power to defeat Satan's schemes.
   I think most of us have heard the phrase, "The devil made me do it." Most laugh when they hear it because we recognize that neither God nor Satan make us do anything, we choose on our own. This however doesn't change the fact that we are sometimes tempted greatly to choose the wrong, and while we hope to always choose the right, we all have in the past and I daresay will again choose the wrong at some point in our life. Simply because we all do sin, doesn't make sin okay, but at the same time we cannot allow those times where we mess up accidentally or purposefully to consume us.
   The reason Christ died, the reason we repent and are baptized into Him, was because God knew from the beginning that we would fail Him. So He sent us a Savior, and a way back to Him. The fact is we do have an enemy, but the greater fact is we having a loving God and a wonderful Savior who has overcome the enemy.

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." ~Matthew 6:13 (an excerpt from the Lord's prayer)