Have you read the legend of Satan’s worldwide convention? In the opening address to his evil angels, he said, “We can’t keep Bibles away from Christians. We can’t keep them from going to worship. We can’t tempt most of them to become hateful, mean, and immoral. But we can keep them from forming a close, abiding relationship with Christ. We can keep them in ‘first grade’ in their Bible knowledge for a lifetime. So let them go to church services, let them lead good, moral lives, but steal their time, so they never grow to maturity.”
He continued, “This is what I want you to do. Distract them from Bible study, prayer, and meditation.” “How do we do that?” asked an angel. “Keep them busy with nonessentials. Invent unnumbered schemes to occupy their minds. Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade wives to go to work for long hours and husbands to work six or seven days a week, ten hours a day, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them away from their children as much as possible. As the family becomes fragmented, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work.”
Satan added, “Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot concentrate on the Word for more than just a few minutes. Entice them to play the radio or CD wherever they go, to keep their TV, VCR, CDs, and PCs going constantly in their homes. Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards, talk radio, and Top 40. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogs, and every kind of newsletter and promotional pamphlet offering free products, ‘essential’ services, and false hopes. In their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return angry, exhausted, and disquieted. Don’t let them stop to see nature and reflect on God’s wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts, and suggestive movies.
“And when they do meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in socializing, gossip, and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions. Let them be involved in good causes, but crowd their lives with so many ‘good causes’ that they do not have time for church activities. Soon they will be sacrificing their health and their family for the good of the cause.”
It was quite a convention in the end. The evil angels went eagerly to their assignments. Christians everywhere got busy, busy, busy, and rushed here and there.
How successful has Satan’s scheme been? Look at your life, and the lives of your family and friends, and be the judge. Someone gave this anagram of busy: B—Burdened U—Under S—Satan’s Y—Yoke.
God wants us to enjoy life, but He wants to be first (Mt. 6:33). He must be life to us (Col. 3:1-4).
