When Satan Attacks

One thing I’ve learned in my Christian walk of more than thirty-five years: when I’m following the plan God has for me, Satan will attack. Over the years, he’s attacked my physical health, my mind and emotions, my finances, my family and my marriage. When we’re walking in God’s plan, we are a threat to Satan and he wants us out of the way and he’ll do anything to make it happen. The last thing he wants are stories that bring glory and honor to God; stories that spark a hunger in the reader for more of God, a hunger to change and seek a closer relationship with Him.

And he doesn’t always use big attacks. Most of them are mind attacks. If he can get us off the Word, if he can get us to doubt ourselves or doubt we’re hearing from God, he’s succeeded.

As writers, we have two areas vulnerable to Satan. In one, he will tell us the lie that we really can’t write and, sooner or later, we’ll be found out so it’s best to quit now before we really embarrass ourselves. In the other, he’ll fan the flame of our egos and we look for the personal glory and praise. We’ll become hardened and immune from the efforts of others to help us grow as writers. We’ll burn with envy at the success of another writer who we know doesn’t have near the talent we do.

We defeat these attacks by staying focused on what God has called us to do, by standing on the promises in His Word, by reminding ourselves constantly that He has a plan for us, a plan for our future, a plan of hope (see Jeremiah 29:11).

Our calling and our gifting comes from Him. He gives us the desire to write. He helps hone our skills in the craft by leading us to the right teachers and mentors. Our response is to step out in obedience and humility on His path, to trust Him, to honor Him through our writing and through our example.

Withstand the attacks of the devil, and he will flee.