Tues., 1/3/17 Devotion (Gen. 3:1a)

Today's encouragement comes from Genesis 3:1a, which says this:

"Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made."

It is good for us to remember this (above). Satan, the old snake, is very clev-er, cunning, sly, and devious. In ourselves, we are absolutely no match for him. The devil has had thousands of years of practice. We are novices, com-pared to him. But the true saints of the faithful church have many advantages over the devil—and the greatest is that we are in the Son of God, who crush-ed the serpent's head, (cf. Gen. 3:15).

Still, even possessing the very mind of Christ, we believers need to be careful and watchful. Our enemy does not rest, in seeking opportunities to trouble our souls. We must not rest, in keeping them.

[Puritan quote of the day: "Sin feeds the sinner with delightful objects and then makes him mortgage his soul.” —Thomas Watson, in, "The Doctrine of Repentance"]