Where do our worries and negative thoughts come from? Hmmm. I suspect they are being implanted by Satan in cunning ways unbeknown to each of us. He doesn't want us to enjoy life or the beauty of God's creation. Satan wants you to be miserable, full of self pity, greedy, and narrow-minded. That way, when you are so wrapped up in yourself it is so easy for him to just whisper lies to you, and you take them as truth because you have blinded yourself from the light and allowed the darkness to guide you.
Every time I think about the methods Satan uses to get to us, I imagine letters from "The Screwtape Letters", by C.S. Lewis coming to life. The book is a collection of letters written by a senior devil, Screwtape, to his nephew, who is a devil-in-training. When you think about the battle for your soul, I see Screwtape and his schemes and attempts to manipulate and divert your attentions to make you stray. It is the most interesting book because we get to peak into the dark secrets of Hell, so we can recognize the schemes and dodge them. Screwtape always signs the letters "your affectionate uncle", which is so ironic and laughable. To imagine a devil being affectionate seems impossible.
It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape
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