What Follows Blessing
"A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it."
- Luke 8:5
After God told Adam that he could eat from every tree in the Garden of Eden except one-the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil-it seems that it wasn't too long until Satan appeared and brought his temptation with him.
It reminds me of a passage in the New Testament, the parable of the sower. Jesus told this parable about a farmer who went out and scattered seed. Some of the seed fell along the roadside, which the birds came and ate quickly (see Luke 8:5).
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We all know what that is like. Have you ever been sitting outdoors at a restaurant and drop a French fry? Birds are suddenly everywhere. Then there are the sea gulls at the beach, which fly off with your lunch or your children or whatever else might be around.
Jesus used the birds' snatching up the farmer's seed to illustrate a spiritual lesson: "Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved" (Luke 8:12).
This is why we need to pray for people who have just come to Christ, because the devil will be there with temptation, with doubt, and with an onslaught of other things. He won't wait for a year to go by. He won't wait for a month. He may not even wait for an hour.
We can come walking out of church, when all of a sudden, temptation comes. We think, What is with that? The devil wants to undermine what has just happened in our lives. But we have a choice as to whether we will allow it into our hearts and minds.
Whenever God is blessing, we can expect the devil to be opposing.
