Have you seen, or possibly experienced the prank when someone loosens the lid on the salt shaker so that when the victim attempts to use it, the entire container is spilled onto their food? (hopefully you weren’t the prankster)

In a similar way, one of the tricks the devil uses to draw us away from God is to manipulate something good into something sinful. We take healthy hobbies and interests and make them our priorities (our god’s) raising them above the importance of God in our lives. We turn good stewardship of God’s natural wonders and put them above God who created them. We take healthy proper intimacy and turn it into pornography. The list can go on and on. The devil can manipulate almost any good thing into something bad that pulls us away from God.

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

We need to keep a close watch of our thoughts and actions to make sure we are not being manipulated and led away from God.

Dear Lord, protect us from the devil’s deception. Help us keep our focus on You, thinking and acting in ways that will bring glory to you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

CS Lewis the great Christian author, wrote an interesting novel that highlights this manipulation and deception, called The Screwtape Letters. It is written as a series of letters from a senior demon mentoring a junior demon in the art of this manipulation and deception. I would recommend the audio version narrated by Joss Ackland, the English actor. His heavy accent makes the character sound so sinister.