As dangerous and as powerful as Satan is, I think some of us give him too much credit.
In the Book of Job we learn that Satan can only do whatever God permits him to do. God forbids him to take Job’s life, so he can’t.
St. James teaches us, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
Although he is sometimes referred to as “the prince of this world,” I don’t believe that means that Satan is sovereign over God’s created world, but rather, only over those who reject God for the world.
If the world really did lie under Satan’s government, the whole thing would look like certain places in New Jersey.
If God really had ceded the rulership of the world to Satan, we would have, under Satan’s direction, entirely killed ourselves off by now. I cannot see the human race surviving the 20th century without God’s intervention. Not that we would’ve ever made it to the 20th.
God’s provides us with abundant proofs–the beauties of nature, the tenderness of love, the goodness of His word: but this list could go on all day–that He is a faithful Creator who is always close to us, who loves us, and who will see us through our many trials.
So why does God permit Satan to do anything at all?
Because everything Satan does, God will turn to His own use; because we whom God made in His own image have to be endowed with moral freedom, which sadly means we have the freedom to do wrong, and very wrong indeed… And boy, if you can see clear to the bottom of God’s plan, or clear to the ceiling, you don’t need any two cents from me!