PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• I am a coffee girl and once upon a time, I was a Starbucks girl.
Because I used to frequently travel between my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC and Cincinnati, Ohio, I knew every Starbucks along the interstate.
The day I finally sat down and calculated my Starbucks expenses was the day I learned to like a simple cup of plain coffee.
It adds up quick and it’s expensive!!!
These days, I rarely go to Starbucks, which is amazing since only a few years ago, I averaged 8-10 visits per week.
But I don’t even go for that simple plain cup of coffee.
I like what I make at home better (or more accurately, what my husband makes… he always makes the coffee).
They must miss me though because yesterday, they sent me an email to let me know my Starbucks rewards were going to expire in a month.
Whatever I have is probably not enough to worry with, nor the effort to actually find my password.
But it did get me thinking.
If Satan had a marketing campaign and wanted to use mass email to discourage Christians, he’d probably send a message that would make us think we were in danger of losing our rewards and salvation.
Even without an email campaign, Satan tries to convince us that we have to act or do certain things to earn our salvation…and if we don’t, we may lose it.
But those lies are completely contradictory to what Jesus said in John 10:28, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Jesus didn’t say, “If you meet this checklist of good deeds, I’ll let you in heaven.”
And He didn’t say, “If you mess up, forget it.”
He said He GIVES eternal life.
Our only requirement is to believe.
God made it simple because He knew we could never do it on our own power.
(Note—I said simple. Not easy.)
And once we accept the gift, we can’t lose it.
Jesus won’t take it away from us and no one else is powerful enough to remove us from His hands.
The only true thing Satan says is we’re not good enough… but he leaves out an important detail!
Jesus doesn’t expect good enough.
He expects faith.
My favorite verses remind us of that truth—Ephesians 6:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
We can all enjoy Grace-Full lives because of Jesus!
And Paul reminded us of the strength of Jesus’ salvation in Romans 8:38-39, “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.”
Satan knows Scripture.
He’s just really good at twisting it.
So why does he persist in going after Christians if he knows we can’t lose our salvation?
Because though we’re secure, he wants us to feel insecure.
Satan knows that Christians who are living for Jesus are a very real danger to his own brand of ministry which is rooted in destruction, chaos, and misery.
And everyone knows—misery loves company.
He will do his best to discourage us because discouragement so often walks hand in hand with demotivation.
He will attack us to try to keep us from reaching others for Jesus.
But we serve a God who is so much stronger.
Satan knows his days are numbered so his marketing efforts for discord and deception continue.
But Friends, we don’t have to react to everything.
Just as I don’t plan to run out to Starbucks to secure points I don’t need, we as a community for Christ don’t need to buy into the lies of Satan.
We know Who wrote the book on salvation and Who wins in the end.
Embrace that truth today as you praise Jesus for offering salvation through faith alone because of His willingness to die for us.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you resist the temptation to believe Satan’s lies and to rest in the security and truth of Jesus’ love.
