Guess what? Satan isn’t after you! Nope. Believe it or not, we humans are not Satan’s target. Yes, he hates us because we are made in the image of God. Yes, he’d like to kill and destroy us. But not because of us. He hates us because of the Word of God living within us. He doesn’t bother people who don’t know God, who don’t know God’s Word. It’s only because we have God’s Word in us (through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit) that Satan attacks.
In the Garden of Eden, how did Satan go after Eve? He didn’t attack her person, her body, steal something from her. No he posed a simple question: “Did God say . . . ?” He questioned the Word of God. He did the same thing when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. If Jesus had done what Satan asked—thrown himself off a building or bowed to Satan—Jesus would have been saying, “I don’t trust God to do what He says He’s going to do.” He would have been denying God’s Word.
What about you? How does Satan attack the Word in you? Perhaps by telling you you’re worthless, telling you you’ll never find that special someone, your children will never return to the Lord, you’ll never do anything important, you won’t be healed, you’ll always be poor, and that nobody really loves you. These are all statements that attack what God says about you in His Word.
If we look at the parable of the sower and the seeds, it’s clear that Satan is after the Word. The seeds are the Word of God, and in each case, Satan attacks the Word. Only the Word that fell on good soil prospered. Satan attacks the Word through lies in the form of:
Persecution
Affliction
Cares of this world
Deceitfulness of riches
Lust for other things
What is the solution? How can we withstand these attacks? The answer is simple. It is to have a heart filled with good soil, soil where weeds and thorns cannot grow. A soil fertilized by God—His presence, His Word, His Love. If you’ve allowed weeds or thorns to grow in your garden, repent and pluck them out. Then just love the Father, the Lord Jesus, and your neighbor as yourself.
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33 NIV).
And don’t worry about that old guy with scraggly horns. There’s nothing he can do to harm good soil!
MaryLu Tyndall