The Enemy

1 Peter 5:8 “ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

A friend of mine posted this verse today. She had heard about it in a mentoring session last night. I think it is so important that we start to talk about the enemy a little more. It seems like if you mention that to most people they will quickly change the topic, or they will think you are crazy. However, I think we all need to know that there is an enemy out there. That there is a fight for our soul. I know this may make us feel uncomfortable, and maybe even a little scared if we think about it too much. However, avoiding it or not believing it doesn’t mean that it is not true.

There is a quote by Kevin Spacey from the movie “The Usual Suspects” that I love. He said, "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.” I love this quote because it wakes us up to the devil’s plan. If we don’t know that there is something out there actively trying to destroy our connection with God, then we don’t know to be aware of it. How do you prepare best for a storm. Are you best prepared when you know in advance that it is coming and you do all the things to protect your family and your house? Or are you more prepared when a storm comes out of no where and you didn’t have time to prepare?

This is true for the devil’s plan as well. If we don’t know that he is out there trying to destroy us, then we don’t know to prepare for it. Are you struggling to believe that there is an enemy working against you? If so, think about the last time you tried to do something that was good for you. Think about the last time that you tried to take care of yourself, maybe you thought about taking a nap because you were exhausted, or you scheduled a date with a friend because you really needed some girl time or guy time. How did it go? Was it smooth sailing no issues? Or did you start to feel guilty for spending time on yourself? Did that voice in your head start to tell you that you were selfish for taking time for you? Did you run into all sorts of scheduling conflicts with your friend? Or, maybe as soon as you went to take that nap the phone rang and you got stuck talking instead of taking your nap.

Do you see, I am not crazy. This type of things happens more than you would like to admit I bet. Have you ever tried to loose weight? Just when you decide that you are going to eat healthy again, every temptation you can think of comes up. You go into work and someone brought in your favorite donuts. You go to a family gathering and they have all your favorite unhealthy food. You decide you are going to work out and then something comes up and you need to change your schedule and there seems like there is no good time to work out. I know you know what I am talking about. We can pretend that these are all coincidences all we like, but that doesn’t make it true and it won’t help us stop them.

I have found that I notice the enemy interfering in my life the most when I am trying to do something to increase my faith. I was just talking with someone the other day and she was saying how she wanted to get to church the other day but things kept coming up. She kept coming up with all these reasons why she couldn’t get there. How many times has this happened to you? I know it has happened to me numerous times. Sometimes, when I decide I am going to help someone out and do something nice for them I start to question myself. I start to ask myself, “What if they don’t want you to?” or “What if they take offense to you helping them?”. The enemy tries to make me doubt myself because he knows that when I am helping others I am doing God’s work, and he hates that.

Hopefully by now, you can start to see that there is really an enemy working against you. It is usually is subtle ways that you don’t even realize. That is why I like the quote so much, because it explains why the devil is not more apparent in his attack. If he was to come right out and attack you, you would know he was there. You would be wise to his ways and you would prepare better next time. But by coming at you in these seemly harmless, covert ways, we don’t even realize anyone is doing anything. We just chalk it up to coincidence, or our circumstances. Or even worse, we blame ourselves. We think that we are no good at loosing weight because we always give up. We believe the lie that we don’t deserve to have a few hours to ourselves because if we did, it wouldn’t be so hard all the time. And every time we believe these lies, or we blame ourselves, the devil smiles and chuckles to himself. He may even point a point on his side of the chalkboard because you know he is the type to keep score.

So, now that we know about what the devil is up to, what can we do about it? First, we can remind ourselves of his tactics when life seems really hard. When we notice that we are having a lot of negative self talk, we can say, “Not today Satan!” and we can pray to the Lord and ask Him to help us see the truth in our situation. We can remind ourselves that we are a child of the one true King, our Lord and Savior. We can remind ourselves that God made us in His likeness and image and that He is proud of us and loves us just as we are. We can remind ourselves that His love is unconditional and does not need to be earned. No matter what we do or do not do, God will not love us any more than He already does.

Second, we can stop and think the next time things keep trying to get in our way of doing something good. We can ask ourselves, if these are real obstacles that we can’t overcome on our own, or if they are lies that the devil is telling us. Sometimes there will be obstacles that get in the way of you doing good things. I am not trying to say that all the obstacles will go away now. It is not the obstacles that were the issue, it was how we deal with them. Do we let these obstacles prevent us from doing the thing that we know God wants us to do? Or, do we figure out a way to get around the obstacle so we can still do the thing? Also, what is our mindset? Do we let the obstacle bring us down and make us think badly about ourselves? Or do we remind ourselves of who we are and whose we are?

Third, we can pray about it. There are prayers you can say that protect you from spiritual warfare. There are quick prayers you can say each day to help make your days go a little easier. Prayers that make it a little harder for the enemy to get to you. I had several friends from my prayer group that said before they even get out of bed in the morning they say a quick prayer to God to protect them. It could be as simple as “Good Morning God, please protect me from any evil spirits that wish to do evil in my life today. Thank you!” You can say whatever you want to say, there is no right or wrong way to pray to God. Just say whatever you are thinking. If you are looking for a scripted prayer, maybe you aren’t used to just talking to God, and feel more comfortable with a scripted prayer, St. Michael’s Prayer is a good one.

“Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.”

These are just a few suggestions to get you started. I know that this topic may make some of you feel uncomfortable. The good news is that we don’t need to be scared of the enemy because the war was already fought we are on the winning side. God is victorious and he will protect us if we ask Him. We also need to do our part to protect our minds and bodies from the enemy. We need to do our part to not invite him into our lives and to not believe his lies. We can acknowledge that their is a devil and that he is powerful and yet also not be afraid of him because we have God on our side. This episode was not meant to scare anyone it was just to help us become more aware of the ways the enemy is interfering in our lives, so that we can stop letting him. We are more powerful than we know and part of the reason we don’t know how powerful we are is because we keep believing the lies that we are weak, and unloved and not enough in some way or another. Once we can stop believing these lies, we can live into the power that God has given us and become the son or daughter that God created us to be.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord we ask that you help us to see the ways that the enemy is working in our lives so that we can put a stop to it. Lord, we ask that you protect us from all evil spirits. We do not give them permission to be in our lives. Lord, we also ask that you protect all children in this world from the evil spirits. The devil seems to be having a hay day with our children, please help them. Lord, we thank you for all you are doing for us. You are amazing! We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with you will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.