And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8

Something one of my sons really got into several years ago is digitally restoring awful photographs. He took pictures that you’d never want to show anyone and made them look like postcard material. God is in that business, too… in dealing with our lives.

All of Satan’s lies are destructive. Keep that in mind. He never lies to us except to destroy us. It is foolish to embrace his lies…but they sneak into our thinking because they are usually subtle—so subtle that we can pick them up, even at church and Christian events … they are that pervasive.

There are two kinds of lies Satan tells us that are probably deadlier than any of the others: The first are the lies He tells us about God (WHO HE IS and what He’s like) and the second are the lies he tells us about WHO WE ARE.

You see Satan works to either diminish who God is or diminish who we are in Jesus. Diminish God’s Holiness or diminish His Grace and who we are because of His grace. And if we lose touch with either of those we will end up in a destructive situation.

To some of us, Satan diminishes the sinfulness of sin. He wants us to think that God is not as godly as He really is and that sin isn’t as contrary to His nature as it really is. This does 2 things: First, it smears God’s character. Second, it gets our focus off the consequences to sin. (Face it, if we came to grips with sin’s consequences, it would be obvious why we wouldn’t want to sin, and why God wouldn’t want us to sin.)

So Satan takes things that are hideous, and makes them appear harmless (even wonderful)—by doing that He makes God appear less holy and more of a killjoy. And he also clouds our ability to see that EVERY sin has negative consequences.

To those of us who hear this lie, we need to remember the words of Jesus: Follow Me. Dressing up sin cannot change its destructive nature or its consequences. Softly and slowly, sin kills us (Rom 6:23). Yes, it’s that destructive.

Now for others of us, Satan has a different lie: Rather than get us to believe sin isn’t sinful, the enemy diminishes God’s Grace. Satan tells us that God is so holy and the consequences of our past sins (or our parent’s sins, or our nations sins) are so great that there’s no hope for us to be whole people.

…Because of what horrible sins we’ve committed, we haven’t got a shot at a dynamic relationship with God. We’re too marred. Too messed up. Damaged goods who will just have to wait for heaven to be really restored. Satan tells us that we’re crippled for life. That’s a lie!

Yes, sin is destructive, but God is in the grace business. He specializes in restoration and making broken things not just mended, but fully NEW!