Good Morning,
The old coffee maker is brewing a fresh pot of Door County Peanut Butter Crunch Coffee. I am headed at this day with sheer gusto and a plan for to come home quickly from a few chores.
Today leads me to talk about defending yourself from the attacks of Satan. In the fight ring two opponents will spar a little before really getting down two throwing the big punches. During the sparring they are looking for a consistent opening in the defense of the "other guy". Once they see a pattern or a weakness, they have found the sweet spot and they attack that spot without mercy.
Satan is evil but also quite crafty. He knows just when and where to attack you. His goal is to lead you astray, depression, or anger. Debt is one way he destroys people. He will tempt you to borrow and overspend. Once Satan identifies your sweet spot, the temptations galore start coming at you like a boxer pounding on a speed bag. For instance if lying is your problem, he sends situations that would make it easy to lie or exaggerate. Maybe you have the weakness of stealing. He won't tempt you with a plate of cocaine that you would turn away from, but bet on this, he will put you in a place where stealing would seem ok or easy and then convince you to reason out why stealing is ok.
You must protect your sweet spot from attack at all times. Jesus endured temptations from Satan and He fought him off with God's sword , His word.
After fasting for forty days and nights, Satan came to tempt Jesus with food to prove He was who he said he was.
Luke 4:3-4 The devil said to Him, "If you are the Son Of God, command these stones to become bread" And Jesus replied, "Man doe not live by bread alone, but from every word that comes from the Father.
I find it helpful when tempted to repeat Scripture out loud to fight the evil one off. I use the Scripture to send Satan packing and protect me from his games and from myself from giving into the temptation.
Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Time to memorize a few verses of Scripture to protect your sweet spot and then take the devil by the ears and open up a can of whoop butt on him.
Happy Day!
Marty
Perfect timing with this message, many attacks came yesterday, but surrender was out of the question, we are more than conquerors.
ReplyDeleteAmen!
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