Sunday · Apr 19
The Most Powerful Weapon
We will explore why the Bible is so important. We also will learn how to improve our Bible study skills. Before we do, we first must understand an important Bible truth: Satan will do everything he can to stop us from spending time with God in His Word, the Bible. Satan keeps people away from their Bibles in many ways. Satan keeps us busy with work and other things. So, we feel too tired to study. Or we stop caring about reading the Bible. Then Satan fills our minds with doubts.
We are warned: “Satan uses everything he can to keep people from learning Bible truth. The Bible plainly shows us Satan’s tricks and lies.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, page 593, adapted. Satan knows that the Bible is powerful. God’s powerful Word makes Satan powerless. Satan knows that prayer and Bible study are the most powerful weapons we can use against him ( Ephesians 6:17, 18; Hebrews 4:12 ). So, Satan does everything he can to stop us from reading and praying. Satan knows that God’s words are powerful. With His words, God made the skies and the earth ( Psalm 33:6 ). With His words, God can wake up the dead ( John 11:41–44 ). God’s words can give us strength to win the fight against sin ( Matthew 4:1–11 ).
So, Satan wants to keep God’s people away from their Bibles. He knows that when we don’t read our Bibles, our relationship with God will grow weak. Our relationships with other people will suffer, too. We will have problems in our marriages. We will yell at our kids. We won’t be patient with our friends and with people at work. Our lives will get so busy. We will feel pressure from all the heavy loads we carry in life. We will feel as if we cannot escape them. We often don’t take the time to understand what is really happening. We may think we’re close to God in our hearts. But the longer we go without opening our Bibles, the more we will grow weak every day.
But Lamentations 3:22, 23 tells us that we always can depend on God. How dependable are you compared to God?
Lucifer was the covering angel before he sinned ( Ezekiel 28:14–17 ). Lucifer heard God’s words and knew their power. Now Lucifer hates God’s words. No wonder our hearts grow hard when we don’t choose to read God’s words and live them in our daily lives.