Therefore, if food cause my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

Well that was part of the devotional I read today and it touched me. Back in the days when this text was written for some of the people it was considered sinful to eat certain kinds of meat. But that doesn't really apply to me because I don't think people are stumble by someone eating meat.

What this does apply to is when we are around our brothers and sister( or when we are not) are we doing anything that's causing a brother or sister to stumble? An example would be going to see an R rated movie or going to a bar or drinking in front of them. For you it is not a sin but for your brother in Christ it is. And if he saw you doing that thing, he would stumble.

I find it so cool that everything that the Lord has us do is involved in serving others, and If its not serving others its probably not from Jesus. When we spread His gospel we are serving God and we are serving those we are ministering to. Same with this when we see something would cause are brother not to stumble and choose not to do it we serve them by not being a stumbling block for them!

The first 2 greatest commandments are, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and Love your neighbor as yourself. So go out and love with the love of Christ! Its not a conditional love its an overflowing love!

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

God is good! Just a few days ago I was sitting in front of my computer and was being super tempted by the devil, and in my brain I had already decided I was going to fail... (for some reason in my brain I figured that hey even though I am a Christian I am still going to sin..) Which is true that there will be times where you do sin but that shouldn't be my mind set.

Anyways, as I was sitting there a thought just popped into my head which was totally from the Lord, "Well have you tried to resist." I was stunned, literally I was sitting there with my mouth just hanging open and then a silly grin popped on my face. :D

Then the verse popped into mind; "Submit therefore to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you." (James 4:7) And I was wondering why I had not seen this before! At that moment I said no to the devil! and it was amazing how fast the temptation is gone...

It also says in Ephesians 4:27 "do not give the devil an opportunity." God has called us to resist the devil and to not give him an opportunity. How can the devil have an opportunity if right from the outset we resist him! Through the power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit that lives inside us, Christian we have been freed! I call you brothers and sisters to call on Jesus and to resist the devil and he will flee! When the temptation arises turn to Jesus and choose the righteous path for in Christ we will lack nothing...

God Bless