The Devil Gets The Credit

     

    I have a story for you. After Hurricane Katrina many people who were not affected by the storm, claimed they were, getting boo-coo of food stamps. Going on food shopping sprees loading up their freezers and cabinets with all kinds of goodies. It was high times. 

    Fast forward a year and in the mail is a statement saying because of fraud all of the money (food stamps) would have to be paid back. A date for review of the case was set. Money or time in jail would be the outcome. What does the person accused of food stamp fraud do? Go to church and say the devil is busy - yall pray for me. After many prayer circles and prayer groups the person heard a message from God: "The devil will not be victorious. Everything is going to be alright." Sure, and satisfied God was with them, on the appointed day of the review, the person was shown leniency. Instead of paying back thousands of dollars, a mere $300 was the penalty. Rejoicing and praises to God were offered. And finally, what has become a Christian idiom was said "What the devil meant for evil; God turned it to good."

     During the whole ordeal I was dumbfounded. How did the devil become involved in this? A person, a Christian person, willfully chose to be deceptive and lie. Once caught the person ran to God to clean up a legal mess and to battle with the devil. Does anyone realize bad choices equal bad consequences?

     Again, a person who goes to work and does the bare minimum their job requires, talks on the telephone all day, comes in late, and is not the most productive employee will declare the devil is busy if they are terminated. Where is self-reflection? Where is growth and change. I told a cousin of mine how tired I was of hearing how busy the devil is. According to the Bible the devil does not have power or authority over Christians. Christians can speak to the devil, tell him to go, and he will flee. The devil it seems is not that occupied with people that already serve him, so where exactly and with whom is the devil busy with?

     She was appalled at my statement. "The devil IS busy! He is always up to something." The devil is busy. But he is getting too much credit for our human busy-ness. We do a lot of things without any nudging from the devil because it has become a part of our daily living. If he can be blamed for everything then we have no need to try to do what is right. There are bad things that happen for no other apparent reason than it had to be from evil, but there are a lot of things we set in motion ourselves. Temptation is everywhere but choice comes from within. 

    As I looked at my cousin when she said she believed the devil was busy, I could see she honestly believed it. We have to have an enemy to blame our pains on or we would have to come to the realization that we are sometimes the enemy of ourselves. It is easier to get compassion from others if there is a common enemy. Would we actually admit to another that we are responsible for some of our bad situations? But that is exactly what God wants us to do. Reflect on our own behavior and strive to change it for the better. The devil knows and is happy he gets blamed for everything because we will have no reason to change. Genesis stated he was the craftiest of all creatures. He has no problem taking the credit for bad as long as you continue with the bad instead of saying "GET THEE BEHIND ME SATAN."