Atari and the devil’s toolbox

Do you remember that old game Pitfall? I think it was the first video game I really ever played… besides the big stand-alone games at the skating rink, that is. It was genius for a 10-year-old back in the day. Atari was the coolest new gadget you could have. It was right up there with the Betamax. Unfortunately, I did not have one, but my BFF Michelle did.

Oh, the hours Michelle and I would spend playing that silly game. We would break away only long enough to eat a Pop Ice and ride bikes down the street to flirt with the boy who lived a few houses down, whose name I can’t quite pull up from my dusty filing cabinets.

The pitfalls we encounter as adults are much more sinister. They are sneaky little danger zones that we stumble into that can wreak havoc in our lives. The devil doesn’t have any new tools you see, he has the same old toolbox that he started out with when he was expelled from the Garden. His toolbox uses things like confusion, anger, apathy, and hopelessness to get our eyes off the goodness and faithfulness of God, and on to the natural circumstances, which many times do in fact seem impossible.

My Dad always says: How can a black cow eat green grass and give white milk and yellow butter? Because God, that’s why.

God is bigger than our circumstances, but the devil’s pitfalls make us forget that. God is faithful to the end, but the devil’s pitfalls make us forget that too. The devil even tries to get our focus off the incredible things God has already done for us and tells us, “Well, that really just worked itself out on its own, God didn’t really do that. And there’s really no hope for this situation at all.” That’s the lie he’d like you to believe. That’s straight out of his toolbox, that’s a classic, that’s one he used on Adam and Eve… Did God really say?

Catch him at his game. Slam the lid shut on his toolbox and sail over those pitfalls with eyes wide open to the Word of God, ears wide open to the urging of the Holy Spirit, and hearts wide open to love and forgiveness. You will come out on top, every single time.