Today's blog is a reflective pause on my last month's journey of life and the circumstance of sickness. From July 21 until August 14, my everyday life was a mixture of unfortunate situations, illness, depressing thoughts, and doubt for my earthly existence. Oh, how often we are so quick to question God's goodness and purpose in our lives.. I know I'm guilty of it.
"Do you ever look at your circumstances and see no possible way the Lord could bring something good from them? While we can’t always understand what God is doing, there is one thing we can do—trust Him to use our situation for His own glorious purposes. When we view life from God’s perspective, every hardship becomes an opportunity to trust His good purpose, fully depend on Him, and respond in a manner that glorifies and exalts Christ." [intouch.org]
Philippians 1:29-30 "For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me."
Sometimes what we face and go through is a spiritual attack from the devil. He brings us to our lowest points of vulnerability because he knows our weaknesses and preys on them to his advantage. "Many today mock the idea of a literal devil, but Scripture clearly states that Satan is real, and his goal is to draw people away from God, to thwart His purposes, and to cause division. Satan is a liar, and no one is immune to his attempts to deceive. Therefore, to stand firm against his lies, believers in Christ need to understand his strategies." [intouch.org]
"What is a satanic attack? It’s a deliberate, willful assault by Satan upon an individual for the purpose of doing harm in the spirit, soul, or body, or all three. These attacks could come at any time or from anywhere. The devil tries to trip us up when we are at our weakest, and he knows exactly who or what to use as a lure. He often tempts us with what we do not need or should not have as he seeks to bring us down." [intouch.org]
As for myself, on my July 23rd blog, "Qualified For, But Doing What's Right", I had one of my greatest number of comments ever for a blog post. So far, I've had 16 written comments for that specific blog post. I was so encouraged to write more. I actually wrote the blog during the beginning of my painful trial. The devil then turned up the heat in my suffering so I fought back with a blog on "Patience and Pain" on August 5th. I reached my lowest point when what I thought was over regarding my sickness, returned with a vengeance. I still continued to seek the Lord's guidance for a blog but my will to encourage others needed it's own encouraging. I was led to a friend's message of encouragement and decided to share that last week, "Truth Matters" by Jim Ehrhard. When the devil comes after us, we MUST fight back and not let him destroy our souls, spirits, bodies, or missions.
Satan’s Strategies
- He directs our attention toward a need or desire.
- The devil chooses times when we are the weakest.
- He creates doubt in our minds. Satan’s biggest target is the Word of God.
- Satan wants to get us in a debate.
- The devil uses deception as his key weapon.
- Satan’s goal is to destroy us.
I share these strategies of Satan so that we know what we are up against. As Voddie Baucham says, "We are not seeing terrible things in our culture because we vote the wrong way, We are seeing terrible things in our culture because men love darkness rather than light." We must recognize and turn from the devil's lies and turn towards God's Truth in his Word. When we fill our minds with Scripture and live according to its principles, Satan’s schemes lose their power over us.
