A Bible Devotion: God will crush satan under your feet

ROMANS 16:20 NLT
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Many don't know it yet, but the New Testament reveals that God has given authority over the devil to all Christians. Therefore we have a responsibility to exercise that authority and stop the devil.

Here are some of the verses that make that clear.

LUKE 10:19 NKJ
19 "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

MARK 16:17 NKJ
17 "And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;

EPHESIANS 4:27 NKJ
27 nor give place to the devil.

JAMES 4:7 NKJ
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

But one verse in the New Testament, Romans 16:20 (see above), seems to give a different message. It seems to say we must wait on God to do something about the devil, instead of doing it ourselves. For a long time, this verse confused me because it seemed to conflict with the rest of the New Testament teaching.

So who is responsible now for controlling the devil? Have believers truly been given that responsibility? Or, should we look to God expecting Him to do it?

Are we to wait on God to stop the devil's activities in our lives, or are we supposed to do something by using the authority Jesus gave us?

One day I finally saw it. Romans 16:20 is not saying that God will do anything about the devil apart from you. God will work through you and satan will be crushed UNDER YOUR FEET. It will be your feet that do the crushing. The power working in you will be from God, but the feet will be yours. In other words, you must take action. You have to step out -- and step on -- the devil.

Romans 16:20 seems to say God will stop the devil -- which would contradict all these other verses. But there is no contradiction when you realize it is God working through the believer to control the devil. In other words, the believer must control the devil, but the power to do it is of God.

Believers must exercise their authority and resist the devil. We cannot wait on God to do what He told us to do.

SAY THIS: God's plan is that the devil be under my feet.

http://adevotion.org