SAMANTHA ELLEY reflects on temptation and “how the devil can take over parts of our lives”…
Northern Rivers, New South Wales, Australia
PICTURE: Dragon Claws/iStockphoto
“And do not give the devil a foothold” – Ephesians 4: 27
It started with a message on Instagram from a good friend.
She was telling me about a new business venture she was starting up, selling fitness gear online.
“What starts as something that seems interesting, attractive or that could benefit our lives, can turn into one huge lie and cause so much damage.”
I have mentioned in past columns that I love working out, so am not adverse to checking out fitness gear.
So when she asked if I would like to sign up to her website, I was happy to click on the link she had sent, to enter my details.
The first red flag came when, after putting in my password, the link took me to a totally unrelated website.
My friend sent another message to ask me if I had managed to get into the website.
I was starting to sense something was wrong, so texted my friend on her phone, totally separately from the Instagram message.
What I received back would ruin my day.
“That’s my hacked account.”
I had happily handed over my password to a scammer, who for the next few hours would change my phone number and password on my Insta account, and then send all my friends the same message in the hope of hacking their accounts.
I couldn’t help but liken the experience to temptation and how the devil can take over parts of our lives.
What starts as something that seems interesting, attractive or that could benefit our lives, can turn into one huge lie and cause so much damage.
It’s no surprise that the devil is known as the destroyer who comes to steal, kill and destroy.
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As much as we need to be aware of scammers in this day and age, we need to be just as aware of weaknesses that can cause us to stumble in our walk of faith.
We are not to even give him a foothold in our lives, but if we do, we know we have Jesus who is faithful to forgive our sins and weaknesses.
And for those wanting to know what happened to my Insta account, I managed to get it back and delete the scam accounts linked to it.
I then messaged all my friends who had received the same scam notice to warn them.
I changed my name, my password and even my profile photo.
My account was restored.
