The Fight For Your Life

5 Sep

“The devil doesn’t have to destroy you.  He only has to distract you.  Keep your focus on God.”  ~ Unknown

I make it a point to remind us every so often that we are in a battle here on earth: the battle for our souls.  The devil works overtime to win us over so that, at the end of our lives, we choose away from God’s eternal grace and love.

Committed Christians think that is impossible to reject God’s invitation and that is precisely what the devil wants us to believe.  The devil wants us to believe that it is impossible to drift from God because that gives him the perfect opportunity to drive his wedge in between our soul and God.

Because, the truth of the matter is, we can be distracted in our spiritual lives.  We can drift from God.  Ultimately, we can choose not to live with God for eternity.  That is the basis of free will.  God gives us the ability to choose to live with Him for eternity or to live without Him.

When we live our lives totally for self, when we fail to help those in need, when we cease to pray, when we fail to worship, we put our foot into the devil’s snare.  Each sin makes the next sin that much easier to commit.  Pretty soon we find ourselves not caring at all.  We have minimized our actions for so long that we fail to see the damage that we are doing to our souls and to our relationship with God.  While that saddens God immensely, it greatly pleases the devil.

I cannot enumerate the ways that the devil sets snares for each of us since we are all unique and we all have our own weaknesses.  You know what your weaknesses are.  You know what temptations you usually embrace.  You know what buttons the devil pushes to distract you from your spiritual path.  Only you can guard against those temptations with the grace of God.

Don’t be afraid to ask God for help.  Don’t think that your problems, your temptations, are too small for God to be asked to lend a hand.  You are precious in God’s eyes and He will do everything that He can to help you if you ask Him.

Don’t think that it is too late, either.  That is one of the snares of the devil.  He convinces some people that it is too late, that they are too far off the course, that they have sinned too much to ask God for help.  The devil wants us to believe that God can and will give up on us.  That is a distraction.  God never gives up on us.  If He ever would have considered that, He never would have sent His Son into the world to redeem us.

Don’t focus on the snares of the devil.  Focus on God this day.

FAITH ACTION:  If you have found yourself distracted and distanced from God, today might be a good time to go to confession.  Almost all Catholic churches have confessions on Saturday afternoon.  St. Thomas More’s are from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.