WHAT ARE YOUR TACTICS FOR REPELLING THE ATTACKS FROM SATAN?

SCRIPTURE:
Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  
(James 4:7)

MEDITATION:
Have you ever had a situation 
where the personalities of you and someone else just do not mesh?
However, it seems that no matter where you go, 
he or she seems to show up there too.

It can be even worse when they start pressing you to have a relationship with them.
You wish that they would leave you alone, 
but you don’t want to be rude and hurt their feelings.
If only you could find a diplomatic way of explaining that you do not dislike them 
but you are not interested in a relationship.

Now, imagine that the one striving for a companionship with you is Satan.
He can be relentless in his pursuit to ‘win you over’, can’t he?
If you are not a child of God, then you have a relationship with him by default.
That means his pursuits are all directed toward those who belong to the Lord.

The irony is, he knows he cannot steal you from the Lord.
So then why would he pursue you so diligently?
If he can destroy your witness, 
then you will be ineffective in pointing others to the Lord.
This is why he unleashes all his efforts to discourage you, 
convince you to give in to sin, and create constant turmoil in your life.

How in the world can you communicate to him to leave you alone?
The scriptures give us a two-step approach for getting him out of your life.
First, we need to ‘submit ourselves to God’.
‘Submit’ means ‘to accept or yield to a superior force 
or to the authority or will of another person’.

Submitting to God means that we yield to His will over our own will.
Each of us knows the desires we have, but when they are in conflict  
with God’s Will, then we push aside our desires out of reverence to Him. 
It’s not always easy, but He has given us the Holy Spirit as our advocate.
When we submit to the Will of Christ in our lives, 
our untamed natures are brought under His control. 

Secondly, we are told to ‘resist the devil’ 
and ultimately he will ‘flee from you’.
Does that mean it is a ‘one and done’ effort on our part?
Due to the constant attacks from Satan, we know it must be referring 
to each instance of temptation.
If we resist him today, he will be back the next day, 
or possibly again the same day.

We understand what resisting means, but how do we do it?
God’s Word tells us how Jesus resisted him – He quoted scriptures accurately.
The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these 
stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: Man shall not 
live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 
(Matthew 4:3-4)

“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the 
Lord your God, and serve him only.” (Matthew 4:9-10)

What was the result of the tactics of Jesus?
Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. (Matthew 4:11)

If we truly belong to God, and as a result have a desire to be like Jesus, 
then we should use His pattern for resisting the devil.

ACTION:
Is Satan making your life miserable?
The good news is - it probably means that you belong to the Lord.
The bad news is - you are in a war with Satan.
How will you resist him and turn him away?

Will you try to use your own ingenuity and faculties, 
or will you resist in the same manner that Jesus did?
Pray and ask the Lord to point you to scriptures for turning Satan away.
Then memorize these verses and have them ready to recite when being tempted.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, thank You for making me aware of the assaults I can 
expect from Satan when I belong to You. Thank You for Your Word that 
tells me how to repel these attacks. Help me to submit to You more each 
day. Take away the pride that keeps me from complete submission. Lead 
me to the scriptures I need to have ready for turning away the evil one 
whenever he tempts me to disobey Your Will. Thank You, Jesus for showing 
me the effectiveness of quoting from God’s Word.”