"Come on, you can go faster," I kept telling myself as I came towards the end of my mile run, trying to beat my personal best. In fact, going faster is something that I think every athlete tries to do. Adrian Peterson for the Vikings tries to be faster on his feet than the defenders, zig-zagging his way through the human obsticle course. And I can picture Michael Jordan on a fast break, trying to keep the defender behind him in order to get the perfect dunk.

Even in today's workplace, it seems that speed is key. Manager's are pressuring employees to work faster, regardless of their profession. Grocery stores push their clerks to check out customers faster, baggers to bag faster; while corporate offices want letters typed faster and mailed faster.

Yet, no matter how fast we seem to do things, it is never good enough. Adrian Peterson gets caught, Michael Jordan blocked, and even I missed setting a new personal best. Perhaps there is no greater feeling of failure in our lives, than the feeling we have after we sin.

We all have areas of failure, whether it is noticeable by others or not. We all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and fall to temptations. And it seems that Satan is right there, taunting us, telling us that "we aren't fast enough for him." Telling us that we "cannot defeat him." And in many ways he is right... we aren't faster than he is, we aren't smarter than he is, and by ourselves we cannot defeat him... but with God, well that's another story.

The Bible tells us that if we resist the devil, if we resist his temptations, he will flee from us. If we align ourselves with God in every decision we make, Satan will run away, as running away from danger. In the thesaurus, another word for flee is to escape. Think about this, if we resist Satan and align ourselves with God, he won't just leave us alone, but he has to escape the power and righteousness of God!

In our lives, we may not always be able to go faster. We may not always accomplish every goal, or resist every sin. But as long as we continuously resist Satan, and his temptations through the Holy Word of God (John 15:7), through the intercession of Christ (Romans 8:34), and through the power of the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39), it will be Satan telling himself, "run faster."

Remember, no matter how much control Satan has over your life right now, or how often you fail, you can still have victory over him. For with God, all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)