November 12, 2024 Devo

Would you be willing to die for God? If someone threatened your life and told you they would kill you unless you renounce your faith, would you do it? I think most of us would like to believe that our faith is stronger than that and that we would give up our lives rather than deny the one we love.
Fortunately, most of us will never be put in that position. But we still have the opportunity to give up our lives for Him a little bit each day. When we die to ourselves to serve our families. When we die to our pride and admit our fault. When we die to our impatience and extend kindness to that checker who’s taking FOREVER to get our order processed. When we die to doing something for ourselves and instead do something helpful for someone in need. Almost none of us get to die glorious deaths for God. We, like the Apostle Paul, simply get to “die daily.”
If you understand that, then maybe you’ll understand this. It’s exactly the same when it comes to giving away our soul. Stories and movies have people signing contracts to give Satan their soul in exchange for power, fame, or money. But our Enemy is a lot more subtle than that. He doesn’t take all of our soul at once. He just wants to tempt us to spend it a quarter at a time. Taking something that doesn’t belong to us because, “What will it hurt?” Telling “little” lies here and there because, “Everybody does it.” Justifying being harsh to people because, “Some people just need to be put in their place.” Talking poorly or gossiping about someone because we’re just “sharing.” If the Devil stood before us with a contract to sell our souls, we’d never do it. So he just barters it out of us with little indulgences, one quarter at a time.
How will YOU answer Jesus’ question today? Each day your life is filled with a bag full of opportunities. Opportunities to live, serve, and sacrifice for God and opportunities to spend your soul in ways the Enemy desires. So make sure you're guarding your heart against the Devil and his scheme. Make no mistake, he wants your soul. And he’ll settle to take it…one quarter at a time. That’s God’s Word for you today.