“The devil!” 

It’s a catchphrase I find myself saying throughout the course of my day. I burned my hand taking overdone cinnamon buns out of the oven. “The devil!” 

I lost my keys while scouring the couch for my lost cellphone. “The devil!” 

An acquaintance I barely know texted me a 500-word paragraph when I asked how her day was, actually thinking I would read all that. “The devil!” 

We say things like, “The devil is in the details.” But is he, really? With all the evil prevalent in our world, do we truly believe the devil is orchestrating burned hands, lost cell phones, and boundaryless acquaintances? 

There are three categories of Christians today: Those who believe the devil is responsible for any and everything unholy and uncomfortable; those who believe the devil is locked far away in hell, unable to attend to human affairs; and those who believe in a balanced, biblical view of Satan’s activity in the world.

To understand the purpose of a thing, you must go back to its origin. According to the prophet Ezekiel, Satan, also known as the devil or the enemy, and formerly known as Lucifer, was a beautiful and wise angelic being who, due to his sin, was expelled from God’s presence and subjugated to Earth (Ezekiel 28:12-19). And just what was that sin? Pride. According to the prophet Isaiah, Satan didn’t want only to be like God, he tried to dethrone God (Isaiah 14:13-14). So God threw him down from heaven (Luke 10:18). He quite literally fell from grace.  

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/KatarzynaBialasiewicz