Satan's Seeds

​Satan begins as early as possible planting seeds of fear and shame in order to gain increasing amounts of authority in our lives, usurped from the authority given to us by God in His gift of free will.  Our freedom to choose is increasingly stolen by the enemy as we relinquish our freedom in exchange for a false promise of safety from whatever we fear, and a hiding place to cover up whatever shames us.  His goal is to deceive us into believing in the illusion of control, which enables him to drive us like a horse under his whip, while our eyes see only our own feet on the road and our own head setting off in a direction.  In reality, he is steering us through fear and shame toward his desired results. 
 
The only way to be truly free, paradoxically, is to surrender to Christ.  If we willingly let go of the illusion of control, which feels like we are giving up control but in reality is severing our agreement with the enemy in fear and shame, we are actually regaining our freedom and authority in Christ.  Where Satan increasingly limits our choices, Jesus offers us grace to render our sin irrelevant which removes our fear and shame, and infinite choices which is the definition of freedom.  In order to gain my life, I must lose it.  When I lose my life for the sake of Christ, only then will I find it.  - Donna Lane