[Satan] can do nothing to damage your position and identity in Christ. But if he can deceive you into believing his lie---that you are not acceptable to God....then you will [live that way].If we even consider the Book of Job, and all the persuasive things said by his closest friends and wife...these were things to drive Job from God. Attempts to displace his relationship with God. God did not doubt Job; if one will recall the conversations in Heaven, God gave permission for trials. I will not claim to know why God allowed them...that is likely not for us to ever know, or not at this time.
I have heard stories and seen many fall to the side. Whether they listened to lies, or were never His, I do not know.
We are all His; He knows us by name. I have loved the passage about His being the Good Shepherd, and that His flock knows Him, and He knows His flock by name. Oh, that just melts my heart.
We have had goats. I used to take a book, climb a tree overlooking my herd of goats eat excess blackberry vines. A great and peaceful time, I will tell you. Each of those goats knew me well, and each would answer to her name. If I cried, they milled about me, gently setting their heads against me. If I rejoiced and ran with them, they lept about like kid goats.
I cannot imagine how well He knows me. It astounds me that He knows me, that I am worth knowing
Let not the trials of today drive us from One who knows us so very well. Our trials may be ever so hard, but as Job shows, rewards are ever so overwhelming. God knows how hard these things are; reconsider for a moment how excruciating it must be for the prince when we stand firm in our faith, run to the fold of our Shepherd, rather than crumple to the prince of the world.
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