Thought of this today and thought I'd write about the way the devil uses to tempt and fool us, especially if there is something we struggle with. Whenever I was tempted and stumbled with any addiction it always went exactly through these three steps.
1. Temptation to go ahead just a little. Convincing ourselves it will be just a small slice of nice, just one drink, just one tiny bit, just one really really small venture into the gray area, that we have the right to it, that it's legitimate somehow, that we need it, or deserve it, like a reward.
2. A little turns into much in a split of second. We have ventured much further than we initially meant to. Before we manage to turn around, we are waist deep and our hands are bloody. Our plans change from the previous and we proceed lying to ourselves more. "Well, I planned so anyway." "Well, this is the last, I'll stop next week". "I really needed it." "This is the only pleasure I have in my life and I'm not about to stop it alltogether." "This is what helps me relax, I live stressfully." And some more lies...
3. The devil tries to bring it to the full, exploiting the occasion of weakness to the max. "Since you blew it anyway, go further to the end, what's the difference now?", eventually adding "It's just this time/today/this week" for some false peace of mind. Having the recipient completely sink into bondage and addiction again, as he is listening and going ahead. But the problem is we ever live in now, this time, today, this week. We dont live in the future but in the present. And so it never stops.
Once we get on that bandwagon there's pretty much no stopping until all three are completed. So the devil can be resisted only by knowing how this 3-step psyop works and resisting the initial offer and deception that we can handle "just a little" of whatever the devil has in store. We know how it ends.
Decide today, "I'm sick and tired, I dont want any more of that same garbage going around!" God will come and help you and I ask Him now to send you His holy angels to battle on your behalf. Whatever it is, a cigarette in your mouth or whatever else you're addicted to, you have not been born with it and therefore you can perfectly do without it. Dont believe the same old lie.
2 Corinthians 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
1. Temptation to go ahead just a little. Convincing ourselves it will be just a small slice of nice, just one drink, just one tiny bit, just one really really small venture into the gray area, that we have the right to it, that it's legitimate somehow, that we need it, or deserve it, like a reward.
2. A little turns into much in a split of second. We have ventured much further than we initially meant to. Before we manage to turn around, we are waist deep and our hands are bloody. Our plans change from the previous and we proceed lying to ourselves more. "Well, I planned so anyway." "Well, this is the last, I'll stop next week". "I really needed it." "This is the only pleasure I have in my life and I'm not about to stop it alltogether." "This is what helps me relax, I live stressfully." And some more lies...
3. The devil tries to bring it to the full, exploiting the occasion of weakness to the max. "Since you blew it anyway, go further to the end, what's the difference now?", eventually adding "It's just this time/today/this week" for some false peace of mind. Having the recipient completely sink into bondage and addiction again, as he is listening and going ahead. But the problem is we ever live in now, this time, today, this week. We dont live in the future but in the present. And so it never stops.
Once we get on that bandwagon there's pretty much no stopping until all three are completed. So the devil can be resisted only by knowing how this 3-step psyop works and resisting the initial offer and deception that we can handle "just a little" of whatever the devil has in store. We know how it ends.
Decide today, "I'm sick and tired, I dont want any more of that same garbage going around!" God will come and help you and I ask Him now to send you His holy angels to battle on your behalf. Whatever it is, a cigarette in your mouth or whatever else you're addicted to, you have not been born with it and therefore you can perfectly do without it. Dont believe the same old lie.
2 Corinthians 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.