Don’t be Fooled

Have you ever successfully pulled a prank on April Fool’s Day? I am not very good at pranks myself, but I do have two little boys who love April Fool’s Day as they scheme to prank their parents. Pulling a successful prank on a friend or family member can be pretty hilarious and fun to watch. Just look at Instagram Reels and you’ll find countless examples of a good prank. I find myself scrolling through Reels looking for a good laugh whenever I’m having a bad day, and it seems to do the trick. Pranks are funny, but they are not so funny when Satan is the one pulling them.

Satan is like a kid on April Fool’s Day. However, for him April Fool’s is every day, and his pranks don’t bring joy – they bring heartache. Don’t be fooled by the enemy, he is the deceiver, and his tricks are not fun.

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

1 Peter 5:8

I took my kids to the Zoo last week and for the first time ever we saw the male lion out walking around! In the past the male lion had been hidden in his cave sleeping during daytime hours, so it was amazing to see him awake and active. Looking at a lion up close isn’t scary when he is behind a secure fence. Without that protection, I would be a lot more nervous.

Imagine with me for a moment that your local Zoo decided to take away the protective fence around the lion exhibit, maybe using the excuse that lions sleep during the day so no one should get attacked. Now let’s imagine that we visit this Zoo, and the male Lion is in fact sleeping during our visit. It is a little scary that the Zoo has no fence up but you’re not too nervous because the lion is sleeping. On your next visit to the Zoo, you find the same situation, a sleeping lion and no fence. By your 3^rd visit to the Zoo, you are not scared at all because you assume that even though there is no fence, the lion will surely be sleeping like he always does. You enter the lion exhibit calm and careless as can be, when you suddenly notice that the lion is not sleeping in his den. It is then that he attacks you from behind.

This is what it looks like to be careless with Satan. We don’t see any obvious temptation, it looks like Satan is sleeping, so it must be safe to enter his exhibit, even though there are no safety guards around the enemy. We get careless, we lose our sense of awareness, we lose our caution, and that is when he attacks us. It was all a trick, and we were fooled because Satan is a deceiver. Be alert of the enemy – Don’t be fooled! Jesus is our protective gate from the lion, his word will keep us safe. Seek Jesus every single day and study his word – this will protect you from the attacks of Satan.

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 

2 Corinthians 11:3

Some people believe that the serpent who tempted Eve was really a dragon because the original Hebrew word for serpent can also be translated as dragon. Genesis 3:1 says; Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. What could be more crafty than a dragon?

A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through Netflix looking for a movie to watch before I go to bed. I discovered a movie titled Damsel. From the outside it looked like a harmless fairytale and being too lazy to research the story line, I pressed play. It was not a harmless fairytale. This movie was more of a horror movie between a young girl and a powerful dragon. Probably not a movie I should be watching before I try to go to sleep as it was very stressful to watch. I looked up the movie on IMDb after watching it and this was their summary.

A dutiful damsel agrees to marry a handsome prince, only to find the royal family has recruited her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt.

IMDb

Even though the movie was stressful to watch, it gave me a good picture of what Satan is like. However, in this movie the young woman had to fight the dragon – alone. Satan is a dragon we need to be aware of because he will try to attack us every single day. But the difference is, we are not fighting this dragon alone!

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

Romans 16:20

God is the one defeating Satan, but he is going to use our feet to do so. God wants to use you as a tool to defeat the dragon. That means you are not the soldier, but rather you are more like the sword in the hands of Jesus our savior as he slays the dragon for us.

We may be tricked by Satan over and over again in this broken world, but God can never be fooled and Jesus is too smart for the enemy’s tricks. Fighting the enemy can be really hard sometimes, but don’t give up, don’t lose hope, because Jesus is helping us fight this battle and when Jesus fights Satan – Jesus always wins! Jesus tells us in John 16:33; I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Satan will try to trick us into believing that we are losing, that we are failures. He speaks lies to us like “your such a bad mom” or “you can’t do anything right.” But his words are empty and meaningless – don’t listen to him. Satan is nothing but old useless bones trying to give the appearance of something worth fearing. We should be aware of him so we don’t fall into his tricks, but we do not need to fear him because God is on our side.

There are many descriptions we could use for Satan. Lion, Dragon, dinosaur bones. Trickster, deceiver, liar. They are there as a warning to be alert of who our real enemy is, not so we can fear him, but rather that we can be used as a tool in the Father’s hand against him.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 6:12