Hope...

I want you to think like a demon for a minute.

O.k., not really but at least think about demonic strategy. Say you were a demon and you had a specific goal, you wanted to make Christians listless, apathetic, sleepy; you didn't mind if they said they were Christians - you just didn't want them to be excited about it...what would you attack?

I don't know what your answer is, but I think I'd attack their hope.

Hope is like fuel...without it, we're not going anywhere!

I mean, I'm no evil dictator and I've never known an evil dictator, but if I were an evil dictator and I wanted to make sure that I didn't have any uprisings, that my people weren't passionate about changing things one of my goals would be to keep any images from the outside world from getting in. I wouldn't want my people to know that there was anything better out there, because once they know that, they are going to have hope and once they have hope, then they start getting ideas. But if they don't have that, they are going to be much easier to rule.

Say I wanted to be a little trickier though, and I didn't want people to be listless. I wanted them to be energetic, passionate...I just wanted them to be energetically working for me. What would I do?

I'd try to give them a false hope.

Think about it. You are a guard in a concentration camp and your inmates aren't working. What could you do to get them to do what you want with great zeal? Start making them promises you don't intend to keep. Hope has great power.

Which is why it is no surprise that in his war against Christians, Satan keys in on attacking our hope. Whatever you do, don't let him get to it. Guard your hope. Refuse to throw away your confidence in what God is going to do for you and refuse to trade it for something so much less valuable, a false hope.