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Key Bible Verse: The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it Proverbs 10:22). Bonus Reading: Genesis 3:1-13

I once had a pet raccoon named Rascal. Raccoons collect all things shiny. If they can get their hands on a Coke-can top or anything else that glitters, they'll grab it and quickly hide it away. They also wash everything they eat. They'll take a chunk of meat in their cute little hands and dip it in water, swishing it back and forth until they're satisfied it's clean.

One day, in a moment of mischief, I gave Rascal a sugar cube. He dipped it in his water bowl and rubbed it in his hands. To his dismay the cube disappeared. He made his little chirping noises as he searched in vain through the water for the dissolved sugar. What he thought held promise faded away.

Our enemy specializes in giving us "sugar cubes." We think we have something of value, only to discover later that it sifts through our fingers. We may earnestly search for it, but we discover that it was an illusion. In the beginning it looked, felt, and seemed right, but it turned out to have no substance. Satan specializes in making empty promises; the blessings of the Lord are substantive.

—Jeff Wickwire in The Windshield Is Bigger than the Rearview Mirror

My Response: When have I felt let down by what I thought would bring fulfillment?

Thought to Apply: Satan promises honor and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure and pays with pain; he promises profit and pays with loss; he promises life and pays with death. But God pays as He promises.—Thomas Brooks (Puritan preacher)

Adapted from The Windshield Is Bigger Than the Rearview Mirror (Chosen, 2006) by permission.

Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Deliver me, Lord, from the twin errors of underestimating Satan and being intimidated by him.

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