“Do not give the devil a foothold.” Ephesians 4:27

Verse Reflections:  Man, when God preaches it, He preaches it.  I love the way He leads me to verses that go together.  This is beautiful.  We are not going to give the devil a foothold.  We are going to use God’s weapons to win this war here on earth.  And yet, if I read the verses before this, He teaches us that it goes beyond just reading the verses.  The verse before this reminds us to not let the sun go down while we are still angry.  The verse before that commands us to speak truthfully.  I have no doubt He is telling us that we have to live according to His commandments for God’s word to work.  If we just read Your word but we do not live God’s word, satan gets a foothold.  And it only makes sense.  The days that I “need” the extra sugar and carbohydrates, the carbugers, are the days that I had tension at work or at home, that I didn’t feel good about something that happened.  We have to make sure that we do not let anger exist.  I love that anger is always a secondary emotion.  Usually it is something pure that causes the anger.  If we can separate out the hurt feelings, the disappointment, the fear from the anger we can easily apologize and move on.  We cannot hide details from our friends, work cohorts or family.  We must be one hundred percent truthful.  If we are not, we hide behind our eating, even behind a larger body so we are not noticed.  We cannot give the devil these footholds.  We have to live pure, a Holy life that separates us from this world.  We have to claim the fruits of the spirit and live in total truth without anger.  Today we are not going to give the devil a foothold in our spirits or our eating habits.  Today we are going to eat God foods.

Prayer:  Thank You Father for commanding us to live the life that moves us up to holiness, to being separated from this world.  We love You Lord but so often we fail miserably to abide by the life that You have asked us to live.  I know that I am happier when I am close to You.  When I live as You want me to live, when I do not allow satan to have a foothold.  I am stronger, I am happier when you are by my side and in my soul.  I am lighter mentally.  What is it in me that doesn’t grab this life every day, every minute, every second.? Well, I will answer that question another day.  Today, Lord I am going to be truthful.  Who do I need to apologize to?  Who have I misled with half-truths?  I want to live fully with You.  I do not want to give Satan a foothold.  I love You so much and I know that I win the battle of eating healthy when You are by my side.  I know when I start my day out with You inside, I feel the difference in every fiber of my being.  Thank You for giving us Your word, Your power.  Thank You for all the people You have called into Your service.  Their podcasts, their ministry speaks to me.  I thank You that there are people out there willing to give up their privacy to lead people to You.  Protect them from us crazy humans and allow them their privacy even while we crave their knowledge and their ministry.  Today God we are not going to give the devil a foothold.  Today we are going to eat Your foods and live Your way.  We love You.