TODAY’S SCRIPTURE John 8:39-47
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, we are told of a creature named Gollum, a tortured soul with two voices in his head that are constantly at war. One voice is a kind truth-teller and encourages him to do the right thing, while the other voice is one of a liar, a thief, and a murderer — one that has fallen in love with a ring of power (just go with me here) driven by a lust for greed, power, and an obsession with “the precious.”
In this life we have an important decision to make: Whose voice will we listen to? God, the Father, is the Voice of Truth (John 17:17; Proverbs 30:5) while Jesus tells us that the devil’s voice is one that belongs to a liar, a thief, and a murderer (John 8:44). Sometimes we identify with Smeagol (Gollum) in the war that we are waging against the flesh (Romans 7:15-25), but we must not get distracted by the things of this life that are precious to us. Instead we must “fix our eyes on Jesus” and “press on” (Hebrews 12:1-2). Just as Christ demonstrated in the wilderness, when Satan tells us lies, we must stand firm, identify his lies for what they are, and allow the voice of Truth to speak loudly over voice of the liar.
Today, I will…identify a lie that Satan has gotten me to believe and confront it with the voice of Truth. In other words, take away Satan’s power by following Jesus’ lead: Find a Scripture where God speaks truth over the lie.