Avoid the Devil’s Left Hook

Avoid the Devil’s Left Hook


Great fighters have destructive one-two punches—a right cross and a left hook. People who follow boxing know it’s the left hook that’s usually the knockout punch. Satan has a deadly left hook too. The reason many of us get discouraged and want to give up on ourselves and God is because we allow the devil to knock us out. Here’s what’s going down.

Often times as we walk through life, we’re scared and bewildered by the world.  We’re lonely and vulnerable to the attention of predatory women and men or to the allure of drugs—or both! The hard truth is that many of us will fall into sin even though we try to avoid it. The devil tries to convince us that sin is okay. Once we fall to his right cross, he shows us his left hook. He whispers to us that we are worthless because of that sin . . . that God could never love us. . . that we should just keep on sinning. After all, we’ve already blown it, right? Wrong!

The apostle Peter denied Jesus three times. Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ with a kiss. How the two men handled their sin made all the difference. Peter wept and came back to Jesus for forgiveness, avoiding the knockout punch. Judas refused to see his sin, walked into the devil’s left hook, and hung himself. When we get hit by sin (and we all do), don’t fall into the devil’s trap and keep on sinning. Recognize that God forgives us for Jesus’ sake. God accepts us back into full relationship when we confess our sin (see 1 John 1:9). Sin is inevitable—getting knocked out by it is not!

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