Counterfeit or Real...How Do You Know?

I had the opportunity to talk with a lady last night before going home from work. She asked how my family and I have been doing, and that she knew with the holidays coming up that we would probably have a hard time with them since my youngest son died seven months ago. It was all well meaning, and I appreciated her concern, but she made the statement about how she didn't know how a person could keep going on. I answered her very simply, without Jesus we wouldn't be.

The conversation continued, and I explained to her that my son had been killed by the enemy of all mankind, the devil. She had a puzzled look on her face, so I continued. I told her that if when tragedy happens you don't have the enemy in the equation, you will only have two people to blame, God or yourself. If you blame God, you shake your fist in His face and say, why did you do this? If you blame yourself, then you wonder what it was that you did wrong.

The problem with this is that God didn't kill my son, and nothing my family did or didn't do was the cause of his death either. I told her that according to John 10:10, which states that the devil is the one who kills, steals and destroys, the only option was that the enemy came and lied to my son and caused his death. Yes, Noah made the decision to end his life, but it was the enemy that lied to him, thereby causing Noah to make that stupid decision.

You see, we must know the Word of God. This is not a game, if we don't know the Word of God, we will not understand the things that are going on in our lives. And if we don't understand, we'll place blame where it does not belong.

At a bank the people that work there are not taught what all the counterfiet money looks like. They are taught what the real bills looks like, that way when a fake comes past them they will recognize that it is not real. It's the same way for us, if we don't know what the Word of God says, we will not realize who it is causing the challenges that come up in our lives.

The reason I know the devil took my son out, is because I know how he works. And I know how he works because I've learned his M.O. by reading about it in God's Word. John 10:10 is the best Scripture I've found for finding out who is behind the challenges or situations in my life. It's pretty simple, God's good, the devil's bad. If there is anything bad happening, then it is because of the devil.

This is not to say that I look for a demon behind every bush, I don't. But I do judge everything in my life by which influence is trying to persuade me...God or the devil, and you would do well to get your face in God's Word and learn what the real is so that when the counterfeit shows up, you'll know it. Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!