Our lives are a tug of war between the good and the evil, between choosing God or Satan. Satan, the master of deception, prides itself by pulling us as far away from God as possible, thus also winning as many souls over to hell as possible. As a creature itself, Satan knows that God has the final triumph. Jesus has already won the battle by dying on the Cross and rising from the dead.

The edge Satan has over God lies solely in the free will God has given mankind. The strategies Satan employs are to accuse, cast doubts, distort, deceive, and divide. Its goal is to break the Father's Heart by luring His child one by one away from Him.

Just as it did for Adam and Eve, the greatest deception Satan planted in our hearts is to doubt the goodness of God — that God wills the best for each one of us. Consequently, we begin to count on ourselves. And we turn to rely on the material goods and every gift from God for self-serving purposes instead of using them to serve others, as originally intended by God. All those goods and gifts then become our possessions, which in turn possess us. We cling to all these gifts from God for fear of losing power, wealth, popularity, relationships, personal achievements, and independence. Satan tricks us in using God's gifts we hold dear to corrupt our minds and hearts, pulling us towards itself, away from God. This is how cunning Satan is!

That is exactly what happened with the younger son in the parable as he demanded from his father his share of the father's property he believed he was entitled to. And the result was, after he had got what he wanted, he ran as far away from his father as possible to a distant country.

Tragically, many of us, God's children, have wandered too far away. And we may have even mistakenly found ourselves home in a distant country and settled there for good, away from God.

This distant country is a place where distractions and other voices are loudest, and God's voice is faintest.

 It is a place where we can hardly taste the Transfiguration of the Lord experiences in our lives (Mark 9:2-10). But these are the experiences that the Father desires to let us know our true identity as His Beloved child, and that we really have nothing to fear!

REFLECTION

Have you experienced such spiritual dryness that you cannot hear God's voice in your life?

Would you also believe in Satan's deception that God does not have your best interest in mind? Would you also leave God?

TODAY'S PRAYER

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

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