When Satan attacks...

Matthew 4:3-11 are some very mighty and powerful words.  These are words that just about leap off the page and smack you in the face.  These are words that give you an example, just a quick glimpse at the hell Jesus went through after He went His forty days and forty nights in the wilderness.

The wilderness, whenever I hear it or see it written anywhere I never think of a place of happy times.  I never think of the wilderness as a place of plenty or abundance.  I never think of skipping and rainbows when I think of the wilderness.  I think of times of trials and tears.  A time of great tests and strength, whether it be mentally, spiritually or physically.  I think of the wilderness as a time of hardship.

But the wilderness is also a conjunction, a linking place, to a time of plenty.   The time where you have abundance and a time of celebration.  Where your tears of hardship turn to tears of joy.  The wilderness will lead you to the Promised Land, as long as you don’t get stuck in the wilderness.

The verses in Matthew 4:3-11 we see exactly how we are to handle the wilderness through Jesus.  We see how Jesus was tempted, by whom Jesus was tempted and how Jesus made His way through each and every temptation.  We also see something that I don’t think we really pay close attention too, but that is in the beginning of Matthew 4 it says, Then Jesus was led (guided) by the (Holy) Spirit into the wilderness (desert) to be tempted (tested and tried) by the devil.  (2) And He went without food for forty days and forty nights, and later He was hungry. 

What this is saying to me is that satan didn’t wait for Jesus to be strong, fed and on His game to attack Him.  No.  He waited for Jesus to be vulnerable and weak in His flesh.   Satan, will know the best time to attack you, and he will then seek you out.   Remember it tells us in the Bible Peter 5:8 that the devil roams about seeking someone to attack and devour so we are to be vigilant and sober of mind so we are prepared for the attack.

I know for me personally the devil will attack, or try to attack my mind early in the morning and before bed.  Sleep is difficult for me so when I am tired my mind is not as sharp nor are my reflexes to what is going on in my mind, this creates an opening for satan to start his attack.  I know that I have to be on guard when I am in that state of mind and before I go to sleep I try to fall asleep while in conversation with God.   I try to wake up and before my feet hit the floor I am asking for protection for the day and calling on Jesus. 

Find your personal opening, so you can stop the devil immediately, so you can be on guard for him.   Satan isn’t this red jumpsuit pitch forked animated cartoon character we have made him out to be.  He truly is evil and has evil forces working against your every move, so to be diligent and vigilant in his attacks and approaches on you is wise.

He attacked Jesus at His most vulnerable time as a man, but because Jesus was armed with the word of God, He knew how to fight the war against evil, and win!

We don’t just want to fight a war and keep satan and his demons at arm’s length and fight this war over and over and over, no, we want to fight this war and win.  We want to have the weapons of mass destruction for evil! 

In verse 4:11 it says Then the devil departed from Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Jesus used the only weapon that will defeat the devil and that is the word of God.  When you speak the word of God against your enemy, your evil, your demon or you’re satan, you are throwing water on a fire, and we all know that water extinguishes fire.    Darkness has no chance of surviving in the face of light.

This is why when you are coming closer to God, or working in His kingdom, before you receive your breakthrough it’s always darkest.   It seems like the oven has been turned up seven times hotter, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.    The hill seems steeper, the oven seems hotter, and the road seems longer, but that’s because satan is trying to get you to throw in the towel before you reap the reward of God’s calling.

Satan will try to kill, steal and destroy anything good that will happen in your life, and since we know that all good comes from God, this gives satan even more ambition to put out your desire to serve God.  He wants to stop anything or anyone from glorifying or serving God, but as we see in Matthew, he was unable to stop Jesus, which means, satan can be unable to stop us.

Jesus, listened to what satan had to say, and then He responded with, it is written.  We have the same strength as Jesus has through His blood.  We have the same power and the same authority that Jesus had through His blood.  We also can say to the devil, it is written… and he will have to flee from us as well.

Jesus went through this torment and hell for us, not for Himself, but for us.  He did this to show us how we can defeat the devil and also what to look out for.  He wanted us to see some of the tricks the devil will play on us. 

You see how in verse three and six satan used the phrase “if you are”.  Satan will do the same thing with you.  Satan will question your devotion to God.  His devotion to you, your devotion to your family, their devotion to you and whatever else you take any pleasure in.   Satan will use anything that he can to get you to question life.  To make you reason, question, and wonder makes you do all of those things with and to God.

Satan will try to tempt you with things or the possibility of things.  If you do this I can get you this.  Just like in verse eight, when the devil took Jesus to a high mountain and said, I’ll give you all of this, if only you bow down and praise me.  Satan will try to get you to sell your soul, and literally it is selling your soul, to praise and worship him, so that he gets the glory over God, but he has nothing to give to you.  Remember all good things come from God.

There is nothing that you can get from satan that is going to benefit or enrich your life.  Satan is the equivalent to death and death on earth as well as death in the afterlife.   Satan spends a lot of time trying to destroy anything good we have been given or will receive from God, so then we should be taking time to learn how to prepare ourselves against his advances.

If this wasn’t something important for us to know there wouldn’t be references to it over and over again in the Bible and Jesus would not have had to battle against evil to gain the surpassing victory. 

I am not saying that we should be glued and obsessed with evil, but we should be educated on the working of satan in this world.  We should know how to guard ourselves against satan and how to glorify our God in the midst of attack. 

Satan is never going to wait for a time that is right for you to reach out and try to upset your life, he is going to wait for a time when things already seem a mess, and make them messier.  Your job in the midst of all of this is to praise the God who made you, and who will walk you through this storm. 

Your job is to keep your eyes on Jesus and know that this too shall pass and you will come out stronger and victorious just like Jesus did!