the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
John Gossner's Treasury
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:11-12.
If Satan and his influence or his attacks upon us were only the phantom of a morbid imagination, St. Paul, and the Holy Ghost through him, would not warn us so anxiously against him; he would not hand us such an armor against Satan, nor admonish us so emphatically to resist and fight him. Yes, my beloved, this enemy does certainly exist. He is terrible, shrewd and strong. His wiles and assaults are planned very artfully and aimed in secret. This is only too true. But the soul experiences nothing thereof, before it has grasped and put on Christ. For as long as we cling to the world and serve flesh and blood, Satan has nothing whatever against us; on the contrary, we then live in his favor, under his care and protection. But renounce the world and the flesh, and you have all devils against you, who with spiritual wickedness and treachery place nets before you and shoot fiery darts against you. If you are not accoutered in that armor of God which the apostle Paul describes in the following verses of the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians; and if you do not fight bravely against these spiritual princes and mighty rulers of darkness, you will not remain master of the field, but grow weary, succumb, lose courage and yield to the world and to Satan: you will be conquered and taken captive. The old lusts will awaken in you; you will yield to them, and be fascinated by them. Therefore, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation" (Matthew 26:41).
Though devils all the world should fill,
All watching to devour us,
We tremble not, we fear no ill.
They cannot overpower us.
This world’s prince may still
Scowl fiercely as he will,
He can harm us none;
He’s judged, the deed is done,
One little word overthrows him.
