Satan knows he lost the claim to your soul when you gave your life to Christ. So, his backup battle plan is to make you ineffective. The last thing he wants is for you to live out the Great Commission, drawing other lost souls to Christ, and people with strong walls do that. Satan’s primary tools work through your emotions. He tries to get you feeling Discouraged, Disillusioned, Disappointed, Disconnected and Defeated. Let’s look at each one individually.
Discouraged
Satan wants you weary of well-doing. He wants you to feel that you can never get better, live a pure life, do what God calls you to do, abstain from fantasy… He accomplishes this by showing you how impossible your goals are. He wants you focusing on how much farther you have to go – not how far you’ve come.
He’s the master of distortion, and he can make your progress look almost non-existent compared to the distance you still have to go. Remember, Satan is the father of lies. Counteract his lies with truth. This is why it is so important to keep a spiritual journal where you record what God is doing in your life. During times of discouragement, your spiritual journal will be a testimony to the growth in your life that will refute the Enemy’s lies.
Disillusioned
Sometimes our hope is in a person or a group of people. Sometimes it is in an expected outcome. I’ll cover both. First, people…
Satan knows that our human nature is to be respecters of persons. We put a lot of stock into our heroes. We place high expectations on them and make them more than they really are. When we do, we are setting ourselves up for a fall, because people will fail you.
Even the godliest people around you are engaged in a battle with their flesh. There will be battles that they lose, and sometimes they can be big ones. If you put all your hopes in them, their fall will devastate you almost as much as it devastates them. The Enemy will then whisper excuses in your ear… “If he can’t do it, there’s no way you can.” Or “If it’s okay for him to quit, to take the easy way out, why should you continue to fight?” Remember, only God will never let you down.
In the other instance, we may put all our hope into an expected outcome. “When I get to this point, things will get easier.” Or “After I take care of this, they will forgive me and we can go back to the way things used to be.” When that outcome doesn’t turn out like we planned, we become disillusioned. It’s emotionally deadly to get to the top of the mountain only to realize that it is just the first in the series. If we declare victory too soon, we will struggle to find the motivation to climb the next peak.
Disappointed
Whenever reality is less than your expectations, you will experience disappointment. The problem we most often have here is that we set our expectations too high. We set ourselves up for failure. Changing an ingrained habit takes time, patience and perseverance. We should counsel with others who have walked our path to get a realistic expectation of what our progress should be.
Disconnected
The Enemy wants us to feel isolated, like there is no one else who knows or cares what we are going through. You may feel that your sin has sidelined you, that you are no longer allowed on the Christian playing field. Don’t believe it. God will use you from the moment (or moments) you repent and commit to obedience. What we forget is that:
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
(1 Corinthians 10:13)
Someone close to you is struggling with the same thing you are struggling with. In fact, God has probably put them in your life so that you can build your walls together. Pray that God will show you who that person is. You may have to take the first step. You may have to take a risk and open up about your struggles, but God will then meet you more than halfway.
I remember a time when I was part of a large men’s group that met once a month to talk about man stuff. We rotated the teaching role for each meeting, and when my time came up, I decided to talk about purity. I didn’t originally intend to talk about sexual purity (I was still new to this group), but in my illustration, I used pornography as an example of what can pollute our mind. It was just one example, but it resonated with many of the men.
Several approached me privately to share with me their struggles with sexual purity. One man, who I hardly knew, approached me the following Sunday morning and embraced me with a big bear hug, saying he knew exactly the struggle I was talking about. His wife told my wife what a huge impression the lesson had made on him and how impressed he was that I had been so vulnerable.
Truth is, it was an accident. I was talking about “men in general,” not me in particular. But God showed me how He is willing to rush to help me if I will take even the smallest step toward Him. That experience gave me the confidence to share my struggle with other men. Before long, it was obvious to me that sexual purity was (to borrow a term) “everyman’s battle.” If you will take a risk, others will respond.
Defeated
The Enemy has lost, but he talks a good game. If you’ve ever played chess, you know that just because your opponent calls “checkmate!” doesn’t mean that it really is. Satan will triumphantly declare “checkmate!” even when he knows it isn’t true. He knows that if he can get you to believe it, you will give up.
I’ve learned that feeling defeated is a danger sign. If I feel defeated already, what’s one more time going to matter. It’s easier to give in to temptation when you feel like you’ve already sunk as low as you can sink. You rationalize, “As long as I’m already down here….”
Don’t allow Satan to turn your discouragement, disillusionment, disappointment or disconnectedness into defeat. As long as you keep trying, you cannot lose. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world! (1 John 4:4) The saint falls down seven times but gets up eight. Keep fighting.
The antidote to all of Satan’s poison is action. Satan tries to create defeat in reality by making you feel defeated. Don’t trust your feelings. They change directions with the wind. Trust what God says and keep fighting. When you feel discouraged, disillusioned, disappointed, disconnected or defeated, take action. Move toward God’s promises and watch as He rushes to your rescue.
Action clears the head of Satan’s lies so that we can see and think clearly. It helps us to see things as they really are and not just as they appear to be. Be disciplined and determined. Whatever God has told you to do, keep doing it no matter what the results. God has the long-range perspective that you lack.
