January 17

What a desperate condition, for a soul to be left to his own defense against legions of lusts and devils! He will be torn like a silly hare among a pack of hounds-- no God to call them off, but Satan to urge them on. Let God leave a people, no matter how militant, and before long they lose their own front yard. When the Israelites panicked at news of invincible giants and walled cities, Caleb and Joshua pacified them with this assurance: "They are bread for us; their defense is departed from them" (Numbers 14:9). How much more must that soul who has no defense from the Almighty be as bread to Satan?

Only an ignorant soul is foolish enough to ride out of his castle unarmed during a siege. He obviously has not studied the enemy, or he would know what peril lies beyond the gates. To make matters worse, if he fights without putting on Christ, he must fight in the dark. The apostle writes, "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord" (Ephesians 5:8). As a child of light, you who are Christians may be in the dark from time to time concerning some truth or promise. But you always have a spiritual eye which the Christless person lacks. The unregenerate man is always too ignorant to resist Satan, whereas the Christian's knowledge of the truth pursues and brings back the soul even when taken prisoner by a temptation.

Do not let anyone deceive you. Spiritual darkness can never be expelled except by union with Christ. As the physical eye once put out cannot be restored by human means, so neither can the spiritual eye-- lost by Adam's sin-- be restored by the efforts of men or angels. This is one of the diseases Christ came to cure (Luke 4:18).

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