- 2 days ago
In our daily meditations at groupbiblestudy.com, we continue our series on spiritual warfare against humanity waged by evil supernatural beings. Like a master con artist, Satan has plotted and schemed to pull as many people away from God as possible. Paul the apostle warned us to be aware of our enemy's strategies:
10If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes (2 Corinthians 2:10-11 emphasis added).
The passage discusses forgiving a believer who was disciplined by church leaders after committing a grave sin. Paul stresses that the church should forgive him and welcome the man back into fellowship to prevent Satan from gaining the upper hand through cleverness or deceit—outwitting us. Unforgiveness and resentment foster a spiritual cancer of bitterness within individuals and damage the relational fabric of the church community. Satan schemes to divide people with a wall of unforgiveness, knowing it keeps us from drawing nearer to God. Jesus warned that forgiveness is essential for receiving the Father's forgiveness. “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:15).
There have been times in my Christian life when I was unaware of Satan's schemes; perhaps you have been, too. Satan uses many plans and strategies to gain a foothold in a person's life to corrupt their mind and heart. It is often through some small sin, but he never stops there. He looks for an entry through a sin not acknowledged to God, such as an area in our lives where we disagree with God about what constitutes sin. A series of sins can become habit-forming and create a stronghold that the enemy establishes in us. Strongholds are difficult to break with just self-willpower alone. Confession to God and repentance break the legal right of the enemy and uproot the thoughts and acts from the soil of our lives. Marcus Aurelius said, "A man's life is what his thoughts make it." Take care of your thought life, and your soul will prosper. Your predominant thoughts will govern your immediate actions. If you sow a thought, you will reap an act. If you sow an act, you will reap a habit. If you sow a habit, you will reap a character. If you sow a character, you will reap a destiny. Good thoughts that take root in the good soil of your character will develop into good habits and ultimately bring you great peace and assurance.
A sequence of evil thoughts that are not rejected, resisted, or cast down allows permission and power to unseen demonic forces seeking to enslave and destroy your life. People who allow sin into their lives give ground or territory that becomes habits, which demonic spirits use to control and manipulate. It is as if we offer demonic spirits "food" to eat, making them stronger. “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). What does it mean to prowl? The picture shows a lion, perhaps unseen, hiding in the shadows, pacing back and forth with its eyes fixed on its prey, trying to find the right moment and a weakness to attack. The Greek word, translated as devour, means to "drink down, gulp entirely, and swallow up."[1] C.S. Lewis discusses Satan's goals in his fictional story about an elderly demon, Screwtape, training his nephew, Wormwood, to weaken humans' minds, will, and emotions. He writes:
"To us, a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense."[2]
Demons can only express themselves on earth by using people who respond to their temptations. The more a human obeys the direction or bidding of an evil thought from demons, the stronger their hold becomes. Thank God we have a deliverer from the power of sin, the Lord Jesus. John the apostle wrote: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work” (1 John 3:8). May the power of God deliver you entirely from the schemes of the enemy! Keith Thomas
This meditation is from the series Spiritual Warfare: Overcoming Evil, a shortened version of the more in-depth study: Uncovering Satan’s Schemes
[1] E-sword.com, searching on 1 Peter 5:8.
[2] C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, HarperSanFrancisco, Zondervan, Page 38.