Have you ever had a computer crash? This time last year my computer completely crashed. I had deadlines to meet and my screen was completely black. I took the computer to an I.T. shop and learned it was fried and it would be cost effective to purchase a new computer. You can imagine my response when I turned my computer on yesterday and all sorts of things started popping up saying my computer had been infected by multiple viruses. All I could think of was “not again!”
After reading through all of the warnings and pop-ups, it became apparent the “warnings” were fake. They all attempted to have me run their program to fix my problem when, in fact, if I had run the program, I would have opened my computer to a virus. Fortunately, my husband is far more familiar with these things than I am and he detected it immediately. The imposter had been very clever in the way they made the warning screen look authentic at first glance, but once we really started investigating it, we learned the truth.
I started thinking about how the enemy prowls around like a lion looking for a way to destroy us, just like the virus wanted to destroy my computer [1 Peter 5:8]. He will use anything he can to mess us up. Just as the virus pretended to be a warning to help me, Satan masquerades himself as light in an attempt to trick us into following him [2 Corinthians 11:14].
We must be students of the Word of God. In studying the Word, we gain knowledge and the ability to discern between truth and counterfeit [Proverbs 15:14]. This is one of the ways the Lord has provided for us to be protected from the enemy. He has given us His Word to educate us [2 Timothy 3:16]. It is up to us to embrace it, learn it and sift everything that comes our way through it. If something doesn’t line up with the Word of God, it’s counterfeit.
Take time each day to dive into the Word and feast on the messages of God. By doing so, you will protect yourself from the counterfeit!