Dealing with Attacks from the Devil

The devil attacks all of us in our struggle to become persons of integrity who desire to unite their wills with the will of God. The only thing that God does not have from us and that which He desires is for us to use our free will to make the choice for Him and in doing so discover what it truly means to be free. The devil would prefer that we follow his example of using free will to reject God and to live as we please. To get us to join him in his rebellion against God and to abandon the spiritual life, I’ve read of 8 ways that the devil attacks us.

Many of these are similar to the deadly sins. They are: gluttony, fornication, love of money, sadness, anger, sloth, vainglory, and pride.

To combat these vices, the soul should reply with responses directly from the Bible. Relevant passages from the Bible tell the truth of God that will silence the voice of the devil.

As soldiers of Christ we are all in a war with Satan and we need to arm ourselves with passages from the Bible as our defense. The biblical words have strong anti-demonic power because as St. Athanasius has said, “The Lord is in the words of the Scriptures.” Demons attempt to impede our progress toward divine contemplation by introducing false impressions and images.

How many souls when praying have become distracted and started having strange thoughts and wondered, “Where in the word did that come from?” As opposed to Divine thought, the devil wants us to choose demonic thoughts. We all face temptations and we can choose to use it for our own advantage. How is this possible

Everything in life that we experience can be a stepping stone to God. This is even true of temptation because it reveals the weakest spot in our moral character. It shows us where we need to be on guard. When we overcome the temptation by refusing to submit to it we grow in virtue. Indeed, it is in the temptation where the devil reveals his position and in doing so we come to know how we can attack and defeat him. Souls must realize that the devil can propose but he cannot impose. When tempted by the 8 vices the soul can entertain them or bring them under control by responding appropriately. Bringing it under control does not permit it. Failure to bring it under control, though, allows the demons to incite the soul to even greater sin.

Demons present evil thoughts to us and we have the power to stop them or to embrace them. If we allow the evil thoughts to persist they will lead us to commit evil actions or develop immoral behavior. The ultimate goal of the Christian is to eliminate evil thoughts and to pray and contemplate God.

None of us will ever be free from the temptations of the devil. What we must do is subject ourselves to the power of God demonstrated in His word. All of us are called to develop good thoughts drawn from the Bible to cut off the bad ones suggested by the devil. Knowing the word of God allows us to discern the holy from the profane and the clean thoughts from the unclean. In other words, the only way to keep evil out is to let God in.

Persistent evil thoughts – if they are not cut off by good thoughts – pose great danger to growth in the spiritual life. Not only do they set us into motion to sin, but they distort our intellect, whereby we can no longer perceive right from wrong, drawing us further and further away from God and His Divine Truth. Because it helps to clear our minds of evil thoughts and the things of this world, the practice of using passages from the Bible is incredibly important. It is what helps us focus on the things of God.

Here are some examples:

When tempted by gluttony respond with the words from Matthew’s Gospel 6:25 – “Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, not about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”

When tempted by thoughts of related to fornication respond with the words of the Letter of James 4:1 – “What causes wars, and what causes fighting among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members?”

When tempted by the love of money respond with the words from the book of Psalms, Psalm 62:10 – “Though wealth abound, set not your heart upon it.”

When tempted by sadness respond with the words from the Book of Joshua 1:9 – “Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened; neither be dismayed; for the Lord God is with you wherever you go.”

When tempted by anger respond with the words from the Book of Proverbs 15:1 – “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

When tempted by sloth respond with the words from Psalm 37:34 – “Wait for the Lord and keep his way and he will exalt you.”

When tempted by vainglory respond with these words from the Book of Ecclesiastes 3:7 – “There’s a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”

When tempted by pride respond with the words from Luke 14:11 – “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The bottom line is that the devil tries to tempt all of us. The best way to keep evil thoughts out of our minds is by putting good ones in their place. The word of God crowds out what the devil desires and replaces it with what God desires.