I have been watching Netflix again.  Why, oh why?  

I have been watching a very political show mainly because it has no cursing in it and no nudity.  Imagine that.  

The theme of the show is not of my beliefs, but they have kept the show very entertaining; hence the reason I’m still watching.  

What gets me about this show is the purposeful manipulation.  They plot to see how they can spin things to take the American public’s eye off of what is important.  And I’m not reading between the lines. They “show” and “discuss” that they are purposely doing this.  

This made me think of Satan’s tactics.  

He is always trying to spin things so we won’t stick with the important issues.  

The show is blatantly showing us how they do these things, and Satan is blatantly showing God how he manipulates us.  Do we really want to look that bad in front of God?  

1 Peter 5:8 states – “Be alert and of sober mind.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  

The greatest mistake you can make with evil is to underestimate its power and influence.  While true evil will never be able to overpower the Lord, it’s far from being powerless. The devil is active and working to take hold of your entire life, harming you, wrecking your spiritual life, contaminating the life of your family and church.  

Satan has many strongholds in the lives of the average Christian. 

He uses those strongholds to war against God and His work.  Jesus Himself even talked about Satan and discussed his power and wanted us to recognize just how manipulating the devil can be.  

It’s always been the devil’s tactic to pull the veil of darkness over us so we will not understand who he is.  

The devil knows in any battle you must understand your enemy.  He knows if we do not understand him or recognize him, we won’t be prepared to fight and defeat him.  

So how do we recognize him or his tactics?  My neighbor Lisa loaned me a book by Tilman Fertitta (owner of Landry’s, the Houston Rockets, Bubby Gump Shrimp, and a lot of other companies).  The book is called “Shut up and listen” and tells us how to be successful in business, but I think we could take the advice of having a plan in place.  

He has step by step instructions and his top thing is hospitality.  

His slogan for each day is “it’s free to be nice”.  

We need to have a plan in place when Satan does attack us.  We need to have a good attitude at the ready. We don’t have to manipulate people to get them to respect us, or for them to listen to us.  

All we have to do is be nice.  

I was asked to be in charge of a group at my son’s school for one year.  After a terrible debate over something, I apologized for my actions. The people who had opposed me spread rumors that I was apologizing to everyone for my wrongdoing when I was apologizing for the way I handled it.  

I was apologizing for letting it go public and not in a private conversation.  

Nevertheless, I spent the rest of the year being nice to those who made it public and spread rumors about me, because being nice cost me nothing, and I gained others respect and trust in doing so.  

Don’t let pettiness stand in your way of a great future or outcome, because Satan is behind the root of all evil, and hurt feelings.  Satan will try to spin things to make you think otherwise. Don’t let him.

 

Karen Y. Stevens is the founder of the Orange County Christian Writers Guild