To be a threat in the Devil you need a couple things: willingness, intentionality everyday, and community. If you are not feeling Satan’s attacks and you are not aware temptations for you in your life, then he has you right where he wants you. Even you hate God and question what He is doing the devil is still going to be working on you. He won’t turn his efforts elsewhere until he has driven you to apathy, addiction, and isolation. If you are still questioning God’s existence, His reasons, or His plan, then the devil knows that there is still emotion, attention, and effort being turned toward our Father. Sadly, I was at this point very recently in my life. This didn’t happen overnight; it is a process.
Certain events in my life led me to question God, His love for me, and whether or not his good and perfect plan was real. I was apathetic, alone, and putting everything else before God. For eight months in 2016, January-August, I would wake up hungover, go to work, start drinking when I got home from work at 5, sit myself down in front of my computer, and finish drinking around midnight. Then I would wake up the next morning and repeat everything the next day. I avoided human interaction because the devil had convinced me that community was not going to make it better, but somehow worse. At this point I was done being mad at God and questioning Him so I became numb to Him and most everything else that was in my life: tv shows, internet, people, music, games… you name it. I would not talk to or think about God for fear of it making me feel so much guilt and shame. As a result of this I decided to stuff it down and became apathetic. My heart was hardened.
At this point in my life I was little to no threat to the devil at all. I was completely oblivious to his attacks and what lies he was muttering to me. Every lie and attack was just another stone on my chest weighing me down. At some point of feeling more and more helpless each day I just accepted it and stopped trying to escape this immense weight. Then I felt a stirring and a song came to mind, including these lyrics:
What kind of love is this, friends? What kind of love is that is so big, so without bounds, that He would come, He would want, He would want to do so much to rescue people who wanted nothing to do with Him? Who fought Him even when He came to cleave us from hell? What kind of love is it that sees us in our filth, comes to rescue us, sees us resist that rescue, but continues to rescue us anyway? What foolishness is this? That He would come offer us rescue and we would say, “No!” Why? What are we gaining by our resistance? Oh, how glorious He is, that He saw you like that and didn’t give up!
I broke down under the knowledge that God still loved me, that I was His son, and nothing could change that. With each step I took back to Him he knocked off stone after stone and soon it was nothing but His love pouring into me.
Be aware of the devil who prowls around like a roaring lion. However, we know who is the true Lion of Judah. Satan is a liar, deceiver, and imitator. If you are being tempted, be encouraged by this. For God is always with us and will not allow us to be tempted beyond our abilities. If you are being attacked by the devil know you are on doing something right for the kingdom and that scares him. A willingness to serve, intentionally being in God’s word everyday, and being in a community of other believers are vital to staying steadfast and rooted against the pitiful attempts of an angry imitator who wants nothing more but to drag as many of us down with him.
