Dear Satan,
You’re very clever. Disguising yourself as light, while beneath your white robe, you are the very embodiment of darkness. Good job. You fooled me.
You reminded me of how sinful I am. You whispered into my ear whenever I had a moment to myself. Whenever I found cause for joy, you reminded me I had more cause for anger. You entered my mind, your voice mimicked my own. I thought my thoughts were my own, but you were there, putting the words into my head.
Why shouldn’t I have believed you? You spoke truth. At first. You reminded me of all the things I have done wrong. All of the things I shouldn’t have said. All of the things I shouldn’t have thought. All of the good I could have done, and yet refrained from doing.
Nice tactic. You got me so wrapped up in myself, so miserable with the person I am, and set the evidence right in front of me. It’s like you made a scrapbook of my life, and sat down to flip through it with me. Instead of recalling fond memories, though, you only showed me the dirt. The stuff I thought was tucked away for good. The stuff I thought nobody knew. The stuff that would condemn me.
But you left out the most important truth. God loves me. Not the eventually-sinless-when-she-finally-keels-over-Marissa, but the Marissa who has been saved from herself (and from you) by the only one who could ever accomplish something so impossible. By Jesus Christ. He who knew no sin became sin for me. So I could stand before God, blameless, holy, washed clean.
I am a new person. I’m not who I was. I died, and my life is hidden with Christ in God. Christ is in me, and I am in Christ. I am seated with Him in Heaven. God looks at me, and sees Christ. We cannot be separated. I go where He goes. He goes where I go. His love has no limits. His grace has no boundaries.
You see, my whole life, you’ve been trying to tell me that I need to earn God’s love. That His grace is dependent on my good behavior. That He frowns upon me when I slip up. But God says that where there is forgiveness, there is no longer any offering for sin. By the offering of His Son, he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. My new self is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created me. My heart is sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. There is nothing I can do to get closer to God. I am as close to Him as breathing. As close as Christ!
No more striving. No more crying out in desperation for God’s forgiveness. I AM forgiven. Sins past, sins present, and sins future. Nothing can take that away. Nothing can make that less true. Not Satan, not me, not any voice of darkness, nor “angel of light.”
Thank you, God.
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” Ephesians 6:10-13
