March 29, 2004

"Satan's Strategies"

We know about one of Satan's main strategies, concealment, from St. Ignatius of Loyola, who was given a tremendous gift of discernment that was passed on to the Jesuits and to the Church.  Satan loves to conceal.  He'll try to get us not to tell.  "Don't tell anyone.  It's such a little thing.  It doesn't make any difference."  So if you find yourself not telling those who need to know, those who are important in your life, especially your spiritual director or confessor, then make sure you do tell.  Bring it into the light.  Journaling also brings whatever we are receiving or thinking or feeling into the light, which is one reason that Satan hates journaling.  He'll try to get us to delay journaling, to put it off, or to skip it because even writing it on paper gets it in the light.  No one may ever see it, but we do and we know that word is there.  Satan is like a bat.  He doesn't do well in the light, but he does very well in the dark.  So don't give him the power to work in any areas of darkness within.

He also tries to prevent us from stopping and asking God.  All Adam and Eve needed to do was tell God about their little conversation with the serpent.  Scripture says they were with God every afternoon, in pure light, in beautiful intimacy in the Garden (see Gn 3).  But they didn't tell God.  They believed Satan's lie and they didn't tell or ask God about it.  They moved on it, and their actions have cost us a great deal. 

Another one of Satan's main strategies is that he will keep us very busy. This comes out of the capital sin of sloth.  Sloth is spiritual laziness, and it's manifested in our busyness.  We're too busy to pray.  We get so busy that we are too tired to pray.  We have to be very careful of this sin as it is a great temptation for us to fall into.  Satan uses that as part of his strategy-"Hurry, hurry, hurry and just move on something, but whatever you do, don't pray."

Most of Satan's strategies will be manifested through one or more of the seven capital sins at some level and usually it will entail pride.  Envy is one of the strongest of the capital sins.  Scripture tells us death entered into our world through envy (Ws 3:24).  Satan was envious of Adam and Eve's relationship with God.  He wanted to make sure that he separated and came between their relationship with God.  He's very clever. 

So we have to watch, "What repercussions will this have?  Is it going to bring forth pride in me?  Is it going to bring forth any part of any capital sin?"  We need to know our sin areas and weak areas because Satan does.  Peter says that Satan goes about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1Pt 5:8).  So self-knowledge is extremely important to protect us from Satan's strategies against us.  St. Augustine used to pray a very simple prayer each day, "To know You, my God, and to know myself."

Now God has His strategies, too.  When Joshua was going to reclaim the Promised Land, God showed him exactly how to take Jericho.  That's quite a famous story of how they praised and blew the trumpets and the walls of Jericho came tumbling down (Jos 6).  But the strategy changed with each town.  The strategy will always change because God doesn't want us to become independent-the battle belongs to the Lord (1Sm 4:47).  Because we don't know the strategy each time, we need to keep going back and ask, "How do we pray?  How do we move in this situation?  What do You want to do?"  We can't move out without Him because it's dangerous; but it's not dangerous with God.  So we ask. 

Excerpt from "Spiritual Warfare," Picayune, MS, 2002.