Now and again, I receive a forwarded email that contains something useful. This one, a PowerPoint slideshow titled “25 Beautiful Short Phrases,” was really good. One of the phrases that ‘jumped’ out at me was “In the sentence of life, the devil may be a comma, but never let him be a period.
” That, I thought, was one powerful phrase. As I understand it, a ‘comma’ is a punctuation mark primarily used as a mark of separation within a sentence, while a ‘period,’ also a punctuation mark, represents the end of a sentence. The ‘comma’ invites a pause, a short delay, and in applying this understanding to the phrase, it reinforced in my mind that in the life of the believer, Satan can cause all kinds of delays, but being neither the Alpha nor the Omega, our lives do not begin and end with him.
He uses the delays we experience to provoke frustration and despair. Unanswered prayers, illnesses, family/relational conflicts, and job insecurity—these are just some of the weapons in his arsenal, and if we are not careful, we could become so weighed down by these things that we forget that it is not Satan who has the last word, but God. Delays in life are inevitable, but we have the reassurance of the Psalmist, “Many hardships and perplexing circumstances confront the righteous, but the Lord rescues him from them all.
” ( Psalm 34:19, AMP ). Just as a comma cannot end a sentence, delays should not end our faith in the God of our salvation. The challenges we encoun.
