November 7: The Lord is faithful

But the Lord is faithful; He will strengthen and guard you from the evil one. (2 Thessalonians 3:3 — Holman Christian Standard Bible)

“The Lord is faithful” is a declaration that appears again and again throughout the Bible. It is one of the most important truths about God that we can ever learn, and a statement that the devil and demons work hard at discrediting. When the serpent tempted Eve in the Garden, he got her to listen to him by implying that God was unfaithful… and though more than four thousand years have come and gone, he continues to uses the same tactic. The God-is-unfaithful lie seems to be an easy one for people to accept and latch on to. The devil works extra hard at reinterpreting our past, and the world around us to reinforce this lie, and so we have to continually be on guard against it. No matter what things look like at the moment, we need to hold on to the truth that the Lord is faithful.

When this passage mentions “evil one”, it is simply another term for Satan. Note that God does not promise to remove him from our lives, or from the world — obviously, that will be true in heaven. Instead God promises to strengthen and guard us from the evil one. One of the most important truths about the devil that we can ever learn is this: Satan and demons are a permanent, evil part of this world that we have to continually resist. They will never simply disappear one day, or finally decide to give up on us completely. There will be times of intense attack, and times of lighter attack, but they will be a constant danger for the rest of our lives on earth, and God’s response to this is to offer us His strength and protection.

Instead of complaining about the attacks and temptations of the devil, we need to concentrate on developing God’s strength and accepting His protection. Ephesians 6:10-17 speaks about the armor of God by which we can “stand against the tactics of the devil”. This is not a passive, automatic armor that suddenly appears when we accept Jesus into our hearts. It’s an armor that we must decide to put on, that involves God’s help and protection, but that also requires our own effort. 

One more thing: the armor that is spoken about in Ephesians, and in various other passages of the Bible, is God’s own armor. It is not earthy, human armor, it is God’s armor. Like king Saul tried to dress David the shepherd boy in his armor to fight Goliath — a great honor — God dresses us in His armor! What an honor this is. How powerful we become when we decide to put it on. Instead of complaining about the problems of this world, we need to concentrate on clothing ourselves in the armor of God because when we do the attacks of the evil one become so small an insignificant.

“The Lord is faithful!”