Do you ever see scary movie trailers on TV and wonder, “Who would pay money to go to a movie knowing they’re going to be scared out of their wits?” Soft orchestra music lures you in, and then suddenly the villain’s grotesque face appears on the screen, larger than life, and the audience recoils in shock and fear. Not my idea of enjoyable entertainment, though obviously popular with many.
I’m much more concerned with a very attractive enemy who wanders throughout the earth looking for followers of Jesus to bring down. Known as Satan, he doesn’t appear suddenly with a diabolical face and evil plan exposed. He’d rather convince us he doesn’t exist, while luring us with beautiful offers of pleasure and good.
Jesus calls him a liar, a murderer, a thief and a destroyer. Some of his subtle tactics:
• Distortion – As was the case with Adam and Eve, Satan adds a slight twist to the Word of God offering an appealing alternative, which allows us to rationalize just about anything.
• Diversion – He diverts our attention away from the mission God gives us, keeping us entangled in the pursuits of this world—too busy for God.
• Doubt – He casts doubt in our hearts, causing us to question God’s character and motives.
• Delay – He tempts us to delay obedience to God until the opportunity has expired.
• Deception – He is the prince of darkness but he masquerades as a beautiful angel of light. His temptations may not entice us to do some gross evil deed, but rather something that looks good, a humanitarian project perhaps, one that spreads love and tolerance in our fractured society. He may even use Scripture. Satan had the audacity to quote Scripture to Jesus, attempting to sway Jesus to his agenda.
What is our defense against him?
The Bible doesn’t teach believers to go after Satan directly. We’re told to fight error with truth.
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.
The battle for the souls of men and women is unseen warfare against an unseen enemy, who is in disguise, and operates with tactics that aren’t easily recognizable. Many victims have fallen into his alluring trap. The only successful weapon against the beautiful lies of Satan is the truth of God’s Word. We arm ourselves by knowing the truth, and submitting to the truth.
Just one more reason to hide God’s Word in our hearts.
God timed your topic perfect for me. Satan will find a crack and do everything to make it bigger. When we finally figure out what has happened we think the crack is too big to fix. Thankfully there isn’t anything that can’t be fixed if we turn it over to God. When we write God’s word on our heart it can help seal the crack before it gets too big and out of control. Thank you for sharing Janet.
Hi Amy, That’s a good point. We all have cracks and God’s Word can fill the crack with truth, which changes everything. Thanks for sharing.
Timely exposure of who Satan really is, we don’t hear this too often it seems….how we need to keep our ‘armor’ in place
Hi Jane, It’s easy to forget that Satan isn’t trying to scare us, but to lure us in by something attractive. God’s Word warns us. And we need constant reminders and discernment.