his twisted lies

Screwtape speaks to us from A Year with C.S. Lewis today. And, of course, he lies.

That's one thing you can count on our enemy to do - he is a liar. He is very good at lying - he's been doing it for thousands of years. He puts just enough truth in his lies to make them very convincing. In fact, with our limited intellects, we can't see through his lies most of the time. He's a master.

Fortunately, we don't have to figure them out. We don't have to outwit the devil. God doesn't call us to beat Satan in an argument. What God tells us to do regarding our old enemy is... to resist him.

How do we resist him? Not by focusing on him. We resist the enemy by finding God's will in the moment. We seek His face, and we find Him. And when we make His joy our strength, when we pray for His kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven... when we love other humans and love God with all our might? Well, when we do those things, we've already resisted him. And he must flee.

So the lies that Screwtape spews in today's readings - the lies that take us to the wrong destination at the end of our road - the little sins and the big sins that he uses to tie us up, entangle us, and keep us from running our race... those lies become powerless when we focus our eyes on Jesus.

Jesus already defeated all of them long ago. It isn't even a battle anymore, between Jesus and the enemy. He defeated him on the cross, and finalized the victory three days later, destroying death itself. We just have to choose to focus our attention - and our lives - on the victorious and risen God of all creation.

Thank You, God, for defeating the enemy long ago, and helping us to take part in that victory today.