
If you are reading this, you are one of those who was able to experience the beginning of the year 2025. The reason for this is simple: you are alive. Your heart beats and ensures that all your organs can maintain their function. What seems so self-evident is not, on closer inspection. We all know that life is finite on the one hand and unique on the other, and that’s what makes it so precious. In a representative survey, 1002 Germans were asked whether they would be prepared to die a year earlier for one million Euros. One in five answered “yes!” However, the older you get, the less willing you are to make this trade. Why is that? You know the answer: life is precious. You don’t just give away a year, not even for a million Euros.
This also applies to your life. It was worth so much to God, the Creator, that He gave His Son to die on the cross for it. It is difficult to grasp the full depth of this love. Only when we have claimed this sacrifice of Jesus for ourselves do we get a glimpse of how significant it really is. Once this has happened, Paul lets us know (2 Corinthians 5:17): “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!”
This new life has a special significance in God’s eyes. Throughout the Bible, He urges us to take care of this new life because we can lose it. God forbid that it would happen! One such Bible verse, for example, is Ephesians 4:27, which is worth memorizing and is easy to remember: “Do not give the devil a foothold” (NIV). This verse teaches us at least four truths:
1. The devil is real – and inferior!
It needs no theological derivation. A look at our surroundings shows us this very clearly. Have you ever heard of someone going through “hell on earth?” The causes can be quite different. However, there is no type of injustice that is not found in people: malice, greed, meanness. A life full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and backstabbing. People talk disparagingly about their fellow human beings and slander them. People despise God, are violent, arrogant, and boastful. They are inventive when it comes to doing evil. They disobey their parents and are unteachable, unscrupulous, unfeeling, and merciless. This list comes from the pen of Paul (Romans 1:29-31) – and yet it is so applicable to our time.
Christian Bale, one of the most famous actors in Hollywood today, was honored with a prestigious film award in 2019. In his acceptance speech, he said: “Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role.” This is a quote from a newspaper. The devil is real. And he wants to destroy you and your relationship with Jesus Christ. BUT: he is defeated. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Hallelujah! And that’s why Paul’s exhortation makes so much sense: “Do not give the devil a foothold.”
2. Our life offers us freedom
God has entrusted us with our lives. He has given us a first and a last day. We are free to decide everything that happens in between. We humans have free will. Especially as a young person, we make a whole series of decisions that have an enormous influence on our later life. Each of us is free to make these decisions. Each of us has 24 hours each day at our disposal. We are free to dispose of this time as we wish, what we fill it with, or what we use it for. Another area of freedom is love. We humans are endowed by God with this wonderful gift of being able to love. We decide for ourselves who or what we love. The same applies to how we manage our money and what we spend it on or for what we save it. One last area of freedom: our emotions. This point may surprise you, because ultimately, they are essentially dependent on our temperament, aren’t they? That is so. But one of the basic human emotions, for example, is fear. The Bible shows us that we certainly have room for maneuvering in this regard.
This list is far from complete. There are quite a few more. God’s idea is that we shape our freedom. He uses His Word, the Bible, to help us recognize and understand His ideas.
3. The devil wants a foothold in our lives
It is precisely the point mentioned above that motivates the devil to draw our attention to himself. He is the enemy of God and therefore also the enemy of the born-again person. He does everything he can to gain a foothold in our lives. His armory of weapons is inexhaustible, and he sometimes behaves like an angel of light and at other times like a roaring lion.
What does it mean to give him a foothold? Jesus set an example of how crucial it is to do the will of the Father. Giving the devil room means ignoring God’s will in a certain matter. Sometimes this is universally valid: God does not want anyone to be lost. The devil wants exactly the opposite. Other times it is about God’s specific will for your life that you have recognized. The devil wants you to ignore it.
What about time? Don’t most of us know the problem of lack of time? God wants us to be wise and careful about how we live, making effective use of time (Ephesians 5:15-16). The devil wants to prevent us from doing this and wants us to waste our time and be careless with it. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat… the list of time-wasting opportunities is endless!
When we talk about love, the greatest of all commandments is that we should love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. The devil wants us to love pleasure more than God (2 Timothy 3:4). Isn’t the hedonistic, self-indulgent lifestyle of the western world a remarkable example of this? In this context, consider Luke 8:14, a remarkable statement by Jesus: “Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”
Does God have a problem with possessions and wealth? Certainly not. But He does have a problem with it if you see it as your security; if you are out to get rich. The devil, on the other hand, would be incredibly happy if he could gain a foothold in your life in this area. He knows that the love of money is a root of all evil and that people have already strayed from the faith because of it (1 Timothy 6:6-10). Perhaps it is worth his while to try this with you too?
What about our emotions, the fear in our lives? Jesus is out on the lake with the disciples, and there is a terrible storm. They are in danger of drowning in the storm. Jesus is asleep. They wake Him up, and He performs a miracle: the storm subsides immediately. Then Jesus asks His disciples: “Why are you so anxious, so fearful?” In other words: “You don’t have to be! I am with you.”
Let’s be honest: don’t you also know that feeling of fear that sometimes rises up in you? The devil wants you to be afraid. He wants you to break down over your worries, to doubt, to give up. I read the words “Pray more, worry less” in the homes of friends. Pray more and worry less. That is God’s idea of how to deal with this area. Therefore:
4. You don’t need to give the devil any room – so don’t!
Yes, you read that right. You are not forced to give him any room. In 1 Corinthians 10:13, it says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
This word encourages me just as much as our memory verse at the beginning. We can defend our freedom. The Lord gives us the tools to do so (Ephesians 6:10-18). I would like to draw your attention to one more thing: Every one of our actions begins with a thought. The world of thoughts is therefore a popular gateway for the devil. Paul shows us how to deal with this in Philippians 4:8. It would be great to memorize this verse this year as well. While you are at it, take a look at Ephesians 4:13. Take your time, because your life is precious. Take care of it!
Niko Ernst
Be the first to comment