A REASON TO PRAY

A Reason to Pray

by Staci Stallings

Recently I was reading Nancy Stafford’s Beauty by the Book. She pointed out something I hadn’t thought of. Words associated with Christ often start with the prefix re- as in renew, refresh, restore, resurrection. Words associated with Satan, however, often start with either de- or dis- Destroy, discourage, disappoint, despair, depression. Re- means to bring back to the original state. Even though as a root word de means “of” as in desire—of the Father; as a prefix de- or dis- means away from, down, or separation or negation, which pretty much describes Satan.

Of course you know this to be true in your own experience. When you’re with Christ, you feel a sense of rebirth and rejuvenation of your soul. When you’re hanging with the devil, there’s a lot of disease, disappointment, disillusionment, distrust, and despair. You know the signs when the devil is working on you. Now you can let that disempower you—as he is trying to do. In fact, Ms. Stafford sums up Satan’s agenda in one very powerful sentence. “His sole purpose is to isolate and destroy us, either emotionally or physically.” That’s about as succinct a goal statement for Satan as I’ve ever read. Isolate and destroy. And I’m quite sure you know how that feels.

So, like I said, you can use the knowledge that Satan is working to destroy you as a reason to give up, quit, surrender, and let him take you down. Or, you can recognize what’s going on and use it as a reminder to fight back.

Now you and I both know that Satan is a wily little booger who will use our greatest weaknesses to crack us in two—or several hundred—pieces. We also know that on our own fighting him, we are sunk. That’s why at some point in the past we accepted Christ’s work on the cross on our behalf so that Satan no longer can lay claim to our lives.

Great and good.

But what about when it feels like Satan is winning in the here and now? What about when he uses those bills we haven’t paid to tell us that we are worthless dust, unworthy of God’s love much less His help?

What about when Satan throws our past sins up in our face? “Yeah, you think you are so holy, but what about when you…?” From personal experience, he’s good at this. He knows what we most fear. He knows what angers we harbor deep inside. He knows what we haven’t forgiven, and he uses these things to eat away at us, pecking at us like chickens do a sick chicken until it dies.

Finally, after many years of searching, I have found a weapon that combats Satan right where he’s working. It’s effective. It’s easy. And best of all, it gets quick results.

It’s remembering this phrase, “This is a reason to pray.”

Staci’s post will continue on Wednesday, August 21st. Keep watching and see how “Satan cannot be where God is.”

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