Occasionally I get them in the mail. They are promotions trying to get me to purchase their product or to use their credit card. I did not ask for these to be sent to me but they were sent. I will confess that there have been times I have fallen for their sales pitch and taken the promotion. I usually regret it.

There are times that we see something and think we cannot live without it only to find that it is now a burden to us. Satan is alive and well on planet earth. He entices us to partake of things and there are times we succumb to his wiles. With Eve he told her, "You surely will not die!" (Gen 3:4) She listened to him and destruction came. Satan confronted Jesus and tempted Him to turn a stone to bread, tempt God by jumping from the high place on the temple and bowing down to him (Luke 4; Matt. 4). Jesus refused all of these.

When you receive a promotion offering a big deal, do you ever read the fine print? It’s called fine print for a reason. You need a magnifying glass to read it sometimes. The fine print points out the conditions of you accepting the promotion. I’m convinced many of us would have no problem saying no if we read this. That credit card sounds like a good offer till you find they can charge you 30% interest. And when you have accepted the offer it is too late to change it.

Satan never shows us the "fine print." He wants us, for example, to think of how good it is to drink alcohol, but never shows the broken life and home because of it. When using illegal drugs the high is the selling point but the habit that costs one their savings is not seen. And there are other things we could mention as well.

Satan also wants one to think they are hopeless. "You’ve sinned and God doesn’t love you. He won’t forgive you now that you are hooked. You’ve gone too far." All of these are Satan’s lies. The loving father in Luke 15 shows us that when we’ve gone astray, God is always watching and waiting for us. And when we return to Him He is willing to forgive and to accept. I need to know this.