A Noble Berean

  In the  last post  of this series, we looked at the danger of underestimating ourselves and overestimating Satan.  Today let's look at the reverse: overestimating ourselves and underestimating Satan.  (This will be a little scattered because there's several angles I want to look at this from.)   While we shouldn't think Satan has more power than he does, we also shouldn't think he has less.  He  is the ruler, the "prince," of this world right now and has been given a lot of leeway (by God's permission) to move around and cause trouble.  Yes, God is still in control over Satan and has him on a leash, but he's still allowed to cause an enormous amount of pain and damage (just look at the world around us, maybe even your own lives).  So may we never be flippant about him or ignorant of his schemes and power.    Here are a handful of verses about Satan/demons (what he's called, what he does, what he's capable of): Satan is called  "the princ

  In a later post, we'll look at examples from the Bible of Satan's schemes, but in the next two posts we'll consider a couple risks that make us more vulnerable to his schemes: overestimating Satan while underestimating ourselves (this post) ... and underestimating Satan while overestimating ourselves (next post).  Both have their own pitfalls. Ephesians 6:11 :  "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes." " Your  stand" There are spiritual attacks that have  your  name on them.  Satan will try to attack you in various ways, and so you must be alert and ready. 1 Peter 5:8-9:   “Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith..." No one else can take  your  stand.  No one else can fight your spiritual battles for you.  Yes, we can and should get all the support we can from other Christians (no Ch