Satan's ultimate goal is to discredit God. And the "easiest" way he found to do that was to attack His servants. Satan will continuously attack us so we can wallow in self-doubt,pity,etc. He will attack us so we dwell on the things we've done. He will attack us so we will break the laws of the land. And the moment he can get us to turn our focus off of Jesus and onto ourselves; the moment we lose faith; when we stop trusting God; when we stop pursuing God's love because we're too caught up pursuing the love of others(Even if the love of those we are pursuing already exists)...that is the moment Satan has victory.
We can get so wrapped up in trying to make sure good things happen to us, to make sure we are loved, to make sure we have friends, to make sure we are accepted. Or we get so wrapped up in our sin, so wrapped up in regret, depression, despair, hatred of our past, disappointment in our perceived future, and discouragement in our present.
This thinking, this wallowing, this self-inflicted pain we immerse ourselves in is our giving Satan the victory. We are throwing our freedom out the door, letting Satan guide us with every wind of self-doubt or self-judgment.
God has given us victory over sin. God has given us the strength to live godly lives. God has given us the power to resist Satan. God has given us the love we desperately seek. God has the comfort we desire. God has the forgiveness we need. God has the wisdom we long for. God has the satisfaction. God has EVERYTHING we need to live the lives He wants us to live. Everything. The home, the Bible(whether fraying or brand new), the friends, the intelligence, the whatever. If we -needed- it to live godly lives, we have it already. Might we need something in the future? Sure. But right now, this very moment we have -EVERYTHING- we need to be the Christians God wants us to be. Freedom, forgiveness, power...all rests in God's outstretched hands. All we have to do is claim it. All we have to do is lean upon God's everlasting arms. All we have to do is trust the Lord with all our hearts, and lean not unto our own understands. And in all our ways acknowledge HIM, and He shall direct our paths. We need to commit our ways unto the Lord, and trust also in Him, and He will direct our paths. We need to commit our ways to God, and He will give us the desires of our heart.
Just submit to God. Resist the devil, and He will flee from you. Don't let Satan give you thoughts that turn you away from God. Turn TO God at those times. Don't let Satan dig up your past, reminding you of things you did. You are FORGIVEN if you asked God to forgive you. God has forgotten them, so why don't you?
Don't let Satan dictate who you are, what you do, what you desire, what you seek, what you pursue. Don't let Satan skew your vision of friendships you have, relationships you have with family or adults. Don't let Satan trick you into thinking someone doesn't love you over petty things. Don't let Satan distract you from living for God. Don't let Satan have dominion over you. As a child of God you are not his puppet that He can do whatever he wishes with. The only string he has tethered to you is the one you attach to yourself. He has no authority over you. Jesus Christ lives in you.
Submit. Pursue God. Resist Satan.
When I was typing this on another medium, my focus completely changed from me and my problems to God and His goodness. I mean, I still am/was struggling with different things, but it wasn't on the forefront of my mind.
And I think that is an example of this entire post. Satan wants our focus off of God and onto ourselves. God wants our focus off of ourselves and onto Him.
Sometimes we do take the focus off of our problems and place them on different things: music, video games, writing, taking pointless quizzes on facebook, doing projects. Some of those things aren't necessarily wrong to take our attention off of our problems, but what happens when we stop doing those things? Satan attacks again and we begin to wallow in our problems.
But, if we had chosen to instead, or primarily, change our focus onto God, then by the time we "stop focusing" (Say we were praying or reading our Bibles) and Satan attacks us, we have the built up power of God to resist Him. And when we resist and resist Satan, it begins to be futile for him to attack. He will either eventually stop attacking at the point(since it no longer is a weak point) and find a new place, or just stop and wait until you take your focus off of God and test to see if it is still weak. If it is, he will continue to drive his teeth into our wounds. But, if we have a resistance, then he will recoil and reconsider.
So, focus on God. Focus on His love, His power, His forgiveness, His freedom, His mercy, His friendship, His pursuit of your love, His pursuit of your friendship, His pursuit of fellowship with you. Focus on God. He wants to speak to you. He wants you to speak to Him. He wants to guide you, help you, comfort you. He wants to sing over you with joy. He wants to bless you. He wants to be your Father, your friend--best friend, your counselor, your rock, your shield, your fortress, your strong tower that you run to for safety. He wants to be the power burning in you. He wants to be the desire of your heart. He wants you.
He died for you, sacrificed for you, bled for you. We needed light, and he gave us light. We needed love, he gave us love. We needed shelter, he gave us shelter. We needed life, he gave us HIS life.
Why do we let Satan take our thoughts from God's excellent majesty to our petty problems. Does God care about our problems? I don't know, but not as much as he cares for us. The Bible says to cast our cares, our problems, our anxieties, our troubles, the things that keep us up at night, the things that make us cry or want to cry, the things that GNAW at our hearts. He wants us to cast those upon himself because he cares for us. He loves us. O! how he loves us!
Can you honestly remain in self pity, self fear, self anxiety when you think about God's love? Can you really worry about friendships that may or may not be shattering all around you? Can you really think thought after thought about what you've done. Can you really listen to what Satan says you are? Can you really let yourself believe Satan's accusations?
You are not what Satan says you are if you have asked God to be forgiven.
You are not a liar. You are not a thief. You are not a murderer. You are not a bigot. You are not hateful. You are not a terrible friend. You are not a failure. You are not an idiot. You are not anything that Satan makes you believe. Why would he make you think you are something you are: forgiven?
So lift up your face. Wipe those tears away. Remove your hands from your broken heart and let God bandage it up. Let God embrace you with his love and majesty. Let God saturate himself in your thoughts. When you let God fill your mind and thoughts there will be no room for Satan's thoughts. You won't have to be paranoid about relationships with anyone, you won't have to worry about a job, or that you aren't qualified to serve God. You can resist Satan. You can submit to God. You can draw nigh to God. And guess what! When you draw close to God...God will draw close to you. It's not a one-sided action. Every step you take closer to him, he takes a step closer to you. God wants to be with you. God wants to fill your life, you heart, your mind with his love, his power...with Him. He loves you.
Dont. Let. Satan. Have. His. Way. You are forgiven. You are free. You are no longer under the dominion and bondage of sin and Satan. You can resist him.
Focus on God.
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