There is one whose life is consumed by hate for us.
He surrounds us with destruction –
destroying our peace of mind, taking delight in replacing calmness with chaos.
His goal is to keep us uptight,
depressed,
stressed out and
consumed with worry so we are of no use to the Lord,
let alone anyone else who needs us.
He constantly whispers the “what ifs”, the “I should haves”, the “I can’t believe I did or didn’t . . .“. He brings the shovel of pain and digs up those buried fears and old tapes – inadequacy, not smart enough, not good enough, not worthy and failure.
He plays to our weaknesses and slyly says :
“You know better, God needs to do it this way . . .”
“Where is God? He isn’t listening . . . “
“He doesn’t really want to answer you”
“You have prayed and prayed for . . . and still no response , it is hopeless”
“You really want this, it is for the right reasons, then why did He say NO!”.
We crumble.
Our shield of faith lies on the ground with our helmet and sword. We sit there in tears and misery, self pity and despair.
He laughs!
He then triumphantly looks to the King and points out our complete failure of our faith and trust, boasting loudly to all of Heaven and Hell of his accomplishment.
The King looks at Satan, then stands. He smiles and says, “Listen, . . . listen to my child!”
Satan is hushed and looks back and forth in consternation, “What?” he exclaims and covers his ears!
“Satan, I rebuke you.”
A trembling whisper is heard throughout Heaven.
The angels clap and praise God!
“Satan, I rebuke you.” stronger now with confidence.
The angels worship at the King’s feet.
“Satan, I rebuke you! I resist you in the wonderful name of my Jesus!!!”
All of Heaven erupts in praise and song!
This triumphant shout resounds in all of Heaven and Hell.
Satan cowers, looks for the crumpled victim . . . instead,
before him stands a warrior,
fully dressed for battle,
shining brightly with God’s reflected glory!
and Satan runs!
