As I went inside the store, I kept an even pace, and I went to grab the beer from the cooler. I was 19 at the time, so I wasn't even old enough to buy it in the first place. Grabbing a carton of cigarettes on the way to the front counter, I made eye contact with the cashier, and then took off running toward the side door at the last second. There I was, on the run with a case of beer and a carton of cigarettes. I quickly got in the car, and my friend hesitated, looking at me with wide eyes as she said "You didn't see the cop?!" I was so oblivious to my surroundings that I didn't see that an officer was walking in one side of the store as I ran out the other door.
Go! Go! Go! I was screaming for her to go, and we were both scared out of our minds. Sure enough, the officer had ran out to his car in pursuit, and we were pulled over less than a half-mile down the road. The hope I felt inside was quickly taken away, and I didn't know what to do. They slapped the cuffs on me, and they took me off to jail. I was so blind that I had run out of a gas station with stolen merchandise as a cop was walking in the other side. You know how I felt? I felt like a fool. I had let Satan blind me so badly that I didn't even realize how much my back was to God. How could I have let this happen?
As Christians, we go through life thinking about how we can live for God, as we make the right choices and help others receive the gift of salvation. Viewing God as a safety net and feeding our own egos, we feel that spotting trouble is easy. If we choose to participate in sinful activities occasionally, that's fine because our foundation in God will rectify our situation. After all, we are entitled to the free gift once we receive it right? This is where we lose ourselves, and Satan's cunning ways take over. We are never entitled to anything that God gives us. This ego trip, courtesy of Satan, is one of the steps he takes to catch us off guard. God gives us everything we have, and we deserve absolutely nothing. Without him, we are absolutely nothing. It is so evident how a personal daily relationship with Jesus and his Word is needed in order to survive.
We wonder how bad things happen to us and those we love. We have created this disaster, from the first sin to the current situation of this world. We consistently revert back to our own egos, thinking we can determine on our own how to live. This is how Satan deceives us, and then he is able to continue deceiving us without us even knowing. The battle that is taking place is something that we will fully comprehend only after death. Everything we view evil in this world is still seen through a filter of hope. We put limitations on evil based on our own narrow-minded thinking, but true evil is pure evil, and it is relentlessly attempting to confuse and blind everyone. If we go into the battle unprepared, we lose the battle.
