Satan has a favorite weapon to attack believers: unbelief. If you’ve ever felt like you were under attack by a negative force beyond yourself, that’s Satan working to break you down. The enemy is a deceiver and will use any tactic he can to get you to renounce Christ. He shudders every time you confess to God.
Satan attempts to steal our faith, by tempting us, discouraging us, making us doubt God’s goodness, distracting us and dividing us. He employs various strategies to attack our faith and our assurance in God. However, God always helps us to survive these attacks with our faith strengthened rather than destroyed.
The Bible tells us, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:11). When we wear weakened armor, it’s easy for Satan to work his way in and sabotage us. Here are five ways to beat Satan’s greatest weapon.
Address Your Unbelief
Doubt can arise for all sorts of reasons and show up in many forms. Sometimes, they’re largely intellectual. We might doubt that the Bible is really inspired by God or that Jesus was really born of a virgin. But doubts can take other forms as well. If a person has experienced great sorrow or disappointment, they may seriously be tempted to doubt the goodness, love and care of God. Is there unbelief in your life?
When Christians begin to have doubts about something as a significant as the truth of their faith, it’s quite understandable that this might worry or even frighten them. Whenever unbelief shows us we must deal honestly with our doubts. It’s imperative that you address your unbelief. To ignore them is to court spiritual disaster.
Keep Your Eyes Set on God
Satan doesn’t surrender without a fight. He comes seeking to discourage you and to defeat you. He may even use your friends, an area of persecution or discouraging responses made by your family. He may also try to throw a missile of temptation at your heart. If you’re in a difficult situation right now that includes suffering pain, worry, or illness, the devil is behind it to some degree. In these situations, it’s important to acknowledge that the devil is working against you, but also be knowledgeable enough in the Word of God to discern when he is behind the attack. Fix your eyes on God, for we will steer where we stare.
Pray Without Ceasing
The Bible tells us, “Your adversary the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). The adversary wants to attack your desires, your thoughts, even how you see and treat your own body. It’s important that you guard against Satan’s schemes through prayer.
First, ask God to guard your heart so that it beats for Him alone. Next, pray that God would cover your mind with the helmet of salvation, reminding you that you are a child of God who is loved. As you pray that God will develop the fruits of His Holy Spirit in every area of your life, you will be invincible through prayer to the one who seeks to tear you down.
Fight Back
Another way Satan will try to get you to struggle with doubt and unbelief is by thinking God won’t help you because you haven’t done everything right or believing that God is willing to help others, but not you. But God doesn’t expect perfection from us. God works in our lives through faith. He wants us to trust Him, believe in Him, and have faith in Him. He wants us to expect good things in our lives.
Fight back at Satan’s schemes by shifting your paradigm. Every day say, “Something good is going to happen to me today. I can hardly wait to see what God is going to do with my life!” You especially need to say this when Satan is flooding your mind with doubts.
Doubt Your Doubts
You may be thinking “I just can’t help it. I wish I could believe and not doubt.” But the truth is you have more power than you think. You really can doubt your doubts. If you’re wondering how to do it, turn to Romans 10:17 which says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The key here is the Word of God. We need to love the Word of God and go after it like we go after food when we’re really hungry. God’s Word is medicine four our soul and we need it to be spiritually strong. As you begin looking at Scripture more and more and speak the Word, be sure to also talk about the good things God has done for you and not the problems. Choose to doubt your doubts.
Satan is our enemy and he fully intends to destroy us. But we have a powerful weapon of our own to combat his schemes: faith. The more we dedicate ourselves to Christ, the weaker the thrust of the devil becomes. Jesus said that if we wanted to follow Him it would mean denying ourselves. It means setting our mind and affections on things above. It calls for loving Christ to the point of being willing to sacrifice life for Him. In the face of such dedication, the devil doesn’t have a chance.