While literally sandbagging the basement door of my home last week to stop a minor flood I got to wondering about the meaning of the expression “to sandbag someone.” I discovered the following, “To downplay or misrepresent one’s ability in order to deceive someone.” I rarely talk about Satan because I don’t want to give him any publicity but this is exactly what he does to us. He downplays his abilities or even that he exists so he can deceive us more easily. I have friends who don’t even believe he is real. They think he is just a personification of human depravity. He sandbags us.
The Bible is very clear that he is very real and he hates us because we have the opportunity to receive what he had and stupidly threw away. Since he has been around for a long time he has had almost endless opportunities to study human nature. While he cannot read our minds he knows people so well he can with great precision guess what we are thinking and what it will take to get us to fall into sin. We are no match.
Now comes the good part. He is a defeated foe. Jesus came, took him on, and beat him. The first part of Hebrews assures us Jesus was without sin. Jesus promises to be with us always. See the end of Matthew. Peter assures us we do not have to depend on ourselves we can tap into divine power. See II Peter 1. Paul says it so well in Romans 8, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Written by Roger Bothwell on March 2, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org