A Heart At War
“Resist the the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7
My home has been a battleground lately. There is some hardfought spiritual warfare going on over here. We are unearthing deep rooted habits of sin. We are struggling to stand our ground in the face of temptation. We are resisting the selfish desires to dishonor or disobey. Every choice feels like an act of war. My heart is weary from battle. The carpet is worn from where my knees daily hit the floor in prayer. Yet no matter how much we try to fight it, sin is ever present. Oh that we could banish the enemy, a cunning serpent who seeks to disrupt our most peaceful of places.
This morning during my time with the Lord, I was brought back to the Garden of Eden, to that moment when sin entered the world and never left.
“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ‘No! You will certainly not die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” -Genesis 3:2-6
It’s easy to assume Eve’s sin was eating the fruit, but take a closer look and you’ll see it began before she ever reached out her hand. Her downfall began the moment she gave the serpent an audience. A master manipulator, he poses a question to Eve in a way that causes her to doubt the very words of God. “Did God really say…?” he begins. When the Word of God is called into question, we should be on high alert. Doubt is a foothold we give the devil and it can quickly turn into disbelief. This is the point Eve should have walked away, and this is where we should too. But like Eve, we so often make the mistake of reasoning over resisting. Rather than tuning out the enemy, we engage him in a debate, allowing him to cross the threshold into our unguarded hearts.
Once he’s there, he no longer plants seeds of doubt, he lies to us outright: “No! You will not certainly die.” This is when we must remember lies are the devil’s native language; there is no truth in him (John 8:44). He dresses them up to look so appealing to us that it’s difficult to discern the difference between right and wrong. Eve “saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom.” But lies wrapped in pretty packaging are still lies. Here the serpent was presenting Eve with something she wanted, and God was restricting her from it. ‘God’s trying to keep you from the best this garden has to offer. He can’t be trusted,’ the devil whispers. Eve found the serpent more trustworthy than God, not because of his credentials, but because the serpent said what Eve wanted to hear.
Not only did Eve doubt God’s honesty, but she doubted His protection, His intentions, His love. Oh how quickly things escalate when we give the devil an audience.
James 4:7 tells us, “Resist the the devil and he will flee from you.” Resist the one who tells you to reason, to justify, to debate. Resist the one who lures you to linger over his lies and dabble with doubt.
When the battles against the enemy wage on in my home, we know our best line of defense is the same one Jesus Christ used when He stood off with the devil in the desert: the Word of God (Matthew 4:1-11). His Word is alive and active, sharper than any sword (Hebrews 4:12), and it is His Word that will form a protective barrier around our feeble hearts. We “put on the full armor of God, so that we can take our stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but […] against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:11-12). We saturate our minds with His truth so that anything less won’t hold our attention. We memorize Scripture, we write it down, we pray it out loud, we post it on the walls and we sing it through worship. We speak the name of Jesus over our home, our family, our hearts, souls and minds, and we watch the devil flee.
Study & Reflection: Where is your heart at war today? When do you feel most tempted to give the devil an audience? What areas do you struggle with doubting God’s best for you? Spend time today in God’s Word. Ask Him to lead you to specific scripture to combat the sins you struggle with. Pray through these verses aloud. Write them down and post them around your home. Imagine you are building a fortress of protection around yourself using the words of the almighty God.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, forgive me for falling prey to the devil and his lies. Forgive me for justifying my sin and for doubting Your goodness. Help me to trust Your Word when the enemy disguises the lies so well. I know You love me and You are for me. Saturate my heart and mind with Your truth. Bring it to mind when I’m tempted so that I might resist the devil. Your name is powerful, Your Word is a weapon and Your love is greater than anything the devil has to offer me. Give me strength to keep fighting, because in the end I know You hold the victory.