Spiritual attacks from Satan
Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2022 11:17 am
Physical: Satan attacked Job’s health, his crops, his animals, and his family.
Mental: With Eve, Satan made sin look attractive and caused her to question God’s goodness and reasonableness and also God’s commands. With Jesus, Satan tempted Him to turn the stones into bread, throw himself from the top of the temple, and to gain all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. With Peter, Satan tempted him to worry about what people would think and to focus on his own safety rather than being there for Jesus.
What can we learn from people who were attacked in the Bible?
Satan often attacks at the start of things. Eve was attacked at the beginning of the world. Jesus was attacked at the beginning of his ministry, and Peter was attacked at the beginning of a new phase of ministry–one without the physical presence of Jesus there. We’re like the people in the Bible–we often experience spiritual attack at the beginning of a new ministry, a new job, a new phase of a relationship (such as married life), or a new try at breaking free from a bad habit or sin.
Satan often attacks when we’re weak.
1 Peter 5:8-9 says,”Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” Prowling lions don’t go for the strongest animal in the group. They go for the one who is weak. The one who is separated from the group. The one is vulnerable to attack. So at different stages in our lives when we’re super discouraged or alone or sick or weak in some way, that’s when we’re most open to attack. We see this in the Bible.
Satan attacked Jesus when he was hungry from 40 days of fasting. He attacked Peter when Jesus and like everything was going south for their ministry.
If Satan attacks, it’s not a sign that you’re a bad Christian. Sometimes when we’re struggling with temptation, we think, oh, I’m such a bad Christian, but this isn’t true. Jesus told us we’d have trials in this life and Romans 3:23 tells us we’re all sinners. The truth is, we’ll be tempted until the day we die, and we’ll give into temptation until the day we die.
Yes, we need to work on growth and gaining victory in our areas of sin, but we also need to realize we won’t be perfect until we see Jesus face to face.
Satan often attacks people who are strong in their faith. Satan is an equal opportunity attacker. He’ll attack us when we’re weak, but he’ll also attack us when we’re strong as he wants strong people to become weak. Just look at the people Satan attacked in the Bible: Peter, Eve, Job, and even Jesus.
Those were all people who were strong in their faith and had close walks with God.
Satan uses lies and condemnation as a weapon. Revelations 12:10 tells us that Satan is the accuser of the brethren. John 8:44 tells us he is the father of lies. He uses lies and condemnation as weapons. That’s why it’s so important for us to renew our minds–to get those lies and condemnation out of our system!
Sometimes you’ll suffer for a long time and not feel close to God. When Satan attacked Job, Job suffered for a long time. He started out strong but then he wavered. That often happens when we go through a trial that seems to last forever. It may be easy to stay strong in the beginning, but when it goes on and on and on, we begin to lose hope. That’s when we need to persevere and stay steadfast–keep going to God and His Word for help even though it’s hard to do.
You’re not the only one going through this. Sometimes we feel all alone and think we’re the only ones going through trials, temptations, and struggles because we don’t see our friends struggling. But 1 Peter 5:8-9 tells us to resist Satan, staying firm in our faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by our brotherhood (and sisterhood) throughout the world. So even if we don’t see the suffering, it’s happening. People don’t always broadcast their struggles so don’t get discouraged if you feel like you’re the only one.
Mental: With Eve, Satan made sin look attractive and caused her to question God’s goodness and reasonableness and also God’s commands. With Jesus, Satan tempted Him to turn the stones into bread, throw himself from the top of the temple, and to gain all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. With Peter, Satan tempted him to worry about what people would think and to focus on his own safety rather than being there for Jesus.
What can we learn from people who were attacked in the Bible?
Satan often attacks at the start of things. Eve was attacked at the beginning of the world. Jesus was attacked at the beginning of his ministry, and Peter was attacked at the beginning of a new phase of ministry–one without the physical presence of Jesus there. We’re like the people in the Bible–we often experience spiritual attack at the beginning of a new ministry, a new job, a new phase of a relationship (such as married life), or a new try at breaking free from a bad habit or sin.
Satan often attacks when we’re weak.
1 Peter 5:8-9 says,”Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” Prowling lions don’t go for the strongest animal in the group. They go for the one who is weak. The one who is separated from the group. The one is vulnerable to attack. So at different stages in our lives when we’re super discouraged or alone or sick or weak in some way, that’s when we’re most open to attack. We see this in the Bible.
Satan attacked Jesus when he was hungry from 40 days of fasting. He attacked Peter when Jesus and like everything was going south for their ministry.
If Satan attacks, it’s not a sign that you’re a bad Christian. Sometimes when we’re struggling with temptation, we think, oh, I’m such a bad Christian, but this isn’t true. Jesus told us we’d have trials in this life and Romans 3:23 tells us we’re all sinners. The truth is, we’ll be tempted until the day we die, and we’ll give into temptation until the day we die.
Yes, we need to work on growth and gaining victory in our areas of sin, but we also need to realize we won’t be perfect until we see Jesus face to face.
Satan often attacks people who are strong in their faith. Satan is an equal opportunity attacker. He’ll attack us when we’re weak, but he’ll also attack us when we’re strong as he wants strong people to become weak. Just look at the people Satan attacked in the Bible: Peter, Eve, Job, and even Jesus.
Those were all people who were strong in their faith and had close walks with God.
Satan uses lies and condemnation as a weapon. Revelations 12:10 tells us that Satan is the accuser of the brethren. John 8:44 tells us he is the father of lies. He uses lies and condemnation as weapons. That’s why it’s so important for us to renew our minds–to get those lies and condemnation out of our system!
Sometimes you’ll suffer for a long time and not feel close to God. When Satan attacked Job, Job suffered for a long time. He started out strong but then he wavered. That often happens when we go through a trial that seems to last forever. It may be easy to stay strong in the beginning, but when it goes on and on and on, we begin to lose hope. That’s when we need to persevere and stay steadfast–keep going to God and His Word for help even though it’s hard to do.
You’re not the only one going through this. Sometimes we feel all alone and think we’re the only ones going through trials, temptations, and struggles because we don’t see our friends struggling. But 1 Peter 5:8-9 tells us to resist Satan, staying firm in our faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by our brotherhood (and sisterhood) throughout the world. So even if we don’t see the suffering, it’s happening. People don’t always broadcast their struggles so don’t get discouraged if you feel like you’re the only one.