One of my favorite books is CS Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. No you may be saying, “Wow that is an interesting choice, a book about Satan tempting a man to muck everything up in his life, I can think of more riveting books to read.”
On some level I completely agree with you, there are a lot of amazing books out there; however, The Screwtape Letters is what I call to mind every time I feel tempted. When I yell at my kids and am tempted to start believing that I am a “bad” mom. When I am in a slump in my quiet time and I am tempted to think that maybe I don’t love Jesus as much as I should because if I did I would spend more concerted time with him. Unfortunately, this list can go on and on.
Why? Because, Satan likes to play the “remember when game”, and not remember the good times like, “Remember when we went to that little cafe in Dublin and had the best latte ever?!?” No, he likes to send us reminders of the hurt that we have experienced in our lives. Hurts like “Remember that time you felt used and rejected? Why don’t you look up that person and see how they are doing in life. Oh look they are doing great, obviously they made the right choice by choosing someone else.” He then twists the knife in a little more trying to make us believe that we aren’t really healed from that experience. He wants us to believe that God didn’t use it to bring significantly better things into our lives.
The truth is though Satan really has no real power, just the power we give him. God does not leave us to ourselves, but promises to bring hope, healing, and a life far better with him than without him. God is also omniscient and omnipresent, Satan is NOT. He can only grasp onto the straws we leave out for him, those of past hurts, of sin and of fear. He then uses those to his advantage whenever possible.
So it leaves me asking what straws am I leaving lying around for Satan to pick up and tempt me with? What straws have I either consciously or unconsciously neglected to hand over to Christ? Because when Satan and his minions are around they will see them, and they will snatch up the opportunity wether we are prepared for it or not.
