Once had one man a snake. He was so used to it, that the snake became a pet. Even it slept next to him in his bed. Once happened that the snake who lied next to the man set itself into very strange position – he lied completely straight. Snakes even when they lie they are waved or crooked in some way, but this one lied completely straight like a desk. So man found an expert, more experienced breeder and told him: “My snake lies next to me and he is so straight. What should I do?“ The breeder replied: “You got to get rid of that snake. It is just measuring you to find out if it is big enough to eat you.“
Our lives are very similiar. We live our whole day and next to our very steps there is our nice friend folowing us. Even when we rest, he lies caml next to us. Don’t forget though, devil is only “measuring“ us! He calles himself an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). For many times he might be next to us, he may not attack at all. He can show himself as a good friend, who offers us many good things, if we will follow him (L 4:7).
Please, don’t think the devil has powers only to tempt us to sin. He si indeed powerful and a temption is just one of his various abilities. He does not need to tempt us to do very serious sin. He can slowly plant a seed, encourage our pride to love God’s service more than God. Through these little deflections a man can easily get to the situation (for example), when God is just too boring. The sin is a dangerous thing, but I think, there is much more going on than just about sin. Devil wants to get you.
However, the biggest stupidness we can commit is to think (and believe!), that snake just lies next to us as he has been doing all the time and that he is harmless – or even commit such a mistake and think, there is no snake at all. What would devil do in my life? For I am so small, I can do nothing and I keep sinning and falling; let devil care about someone bigger. The devil and in the Czech republic? Such a mistake. What would he do here? I mean, there is so few Christians. The devil in our church? Oh come on, I mean, when you don’t look at those few disputes between brothers and sisters, we are “quite good“ church.
The devil rejoices, when he hears us saying “quite good“, if the term “quite good“ signals certain imperfection, which we can avoid. However, in this case we are not willing to avoid it, for we are satisfied with current state, because it does not threaten us immediately = we think the snake lying next to us is just stretching. Or our life, which misses some sort of spark, but there is nothing seriously wrong going on – in fact we are doing “pretty good“.
