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“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.”- Theodore Roosevelt.

Ain’t this the truth.

How many times have you noticed yourself get in your own way?

Not just in walking and maneuvering but mostly with decision making and choices. We often second guess ourselves, belittle ourselves, put down ourselves, fuss at ourselves and more because whether we wish to acknowledge it or not…we are our own worst enemy.

Leon Brown is known for saying: “You are your worst enemy. It is your negative thrust that holds you back, nothing else.”

In 1999, Lit had a song entitled “My Own Worst Enemy” saying, “It’s no surprise to me I am my own worst enemy.”

I think one of the devil’s greatest tools in his bag of tricks is deceit. In Romans 7:11, Paul writes, “For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me…..”

Deceit is a strong weapon. Just as the devil deceived Eve in the garden into not listening to God’s simple request of leaving the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil alone, the devil still deceives us today into thinking sin is no longer sin. That it’s OK not to love that person. How no one will ever find out. That church and God aren’t needed or important. How you can handle your own issues without asking for help.

The devil convinces us that God doesn’t want us to have any fun and that’s why He gives us all those commands. Church, we deceive ourselves into thinking God is robbing us of fun or what we deserve. That all those sins we read about in the Bible aren’t applicable any more, just do what you want. It’s just God blocking you.

Stop.

If you never catch anything from these devotions please remember this –  sin deceives. Sin deceives by promising what it can never deliver. Sin deceives by convincing that what happens to others won’t happen to us. Sin deceives us by creating a desire for something that will only hurt you or your loved ones. We deceive ourselves into thinking we can do life on our own.

Sin deceives.

We stand guilty before God as sinners who deserve God’s punishment and wrath. To be freed we must follow what God’s word says and not follow tradition, what the preacher said, what we think. We follow Christ in all aspects, and Christ alone. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal in Christ Jesus.”

God, give me life as I wash my sins away. I desire you and nothing else. Through Jesus, amen.

Rev. J. Cameron Bailey is pastor of Kenbridge Christian Church. He can be reached at jamescameronbailey@gmail.com.