The enemy will use any means necessary to keep us from obeying our Heavenly Father. Have you ever noticed that? Satan may use children, our loved ones, including spouses. He’ll set up roadblocks to wear us down. He’ll make our efforts seem meaningless and futile. He will redirect our focus away from our service and fill our lives with busyness.
Our missionaries have moved a few times, as do most. One of their homes was an area where the children were left to their own devices all day long. There was no parental oversight, and the children harassed this couple every day. I could relate to it in a very small way because I lived in North Dayton for many years, and it was a similar situation. The kids were sent outside to “play” early every morning, and they weren’t called home until after dark. We had a reprieve during the winter months, but it still wore on my nerves. They damaged property, were always ringing our doorbell, climbing around on our porch, sitting on our stoop. It kept me on edge.
Whatever sparks our heart for service to the Lord can feel like a gift from Heaven. It’s awesome to have a purpose and a focus. Some refer to it as their heart is “on fire” for the Lord. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always take much to dowse that fire. Maybe a family member is a cynic, a naysayer, gloomy. Their words and the sheer weight of their negativity can easily weigh a person down. What an easy way for Satan to get to us and halt our efforts. One of his favorite ways to discourage us is to put a wedge between us and a loved one. That relationship will seem far more important than our ministry, and our focus will quickly shift.
A good portion of my adult life was spent being poor. However, my first husband was accustomed to living an upper-middle-class lifestyle. He didn’t want to work a traditional 9-to-5 job to achieve that for us. He was always chasing after the shiny object, an easy get-rich-quick scheme that usually cost us more money than we earned. He instilled this Fred Flintstone/Ralph Kramden mentality and desire in me. I still find myself doing it.
I feel strongly that God wants me to write devotionals, but then I see a YouTube video about how to make “thousands” of dollars a month creating low-content books (notebooks, journals, etc.). So, I get distracted and do that. It escalates to affiliate marketing and other projects, and I keep saying, “After “this,” I’ll get back to writing. But, it’s always one-more-thing, one-more-thing. I can almost see God slapping His forehead and shaking His head.
The only way to combat these distractions and roadblocks is to daily
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Ephesians 6:11 NKJV
MESSAGE #2 SATAN’S WAYS ARE SUBTLE
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3
Father, please help us to be alert to what the enemy is doing in our lives. Help us to see that it’s him, sometimes in the most subtle ways, distracting us from our ministries and service to You.