In the 70s there was a very famous song called American Pie. It was a chart buster and remains popular till this day. A line in the song is very thought provoking and it says, "I saw Satan laughing in delight".
Strange, isn't it? But think about it. What makes Satan delighted. Do you and I delight Satan?
We spend so much time on developing our lives to delight God and trying to follow it, we seldom stop to think what about our life delights Satan. Let's think about it today.
Possibly because we are a material society, we believe what we see, therefore we have a far-off belief in the spiritual wars we face and hence don't take the trouble to know our enemy - Satan. Big mistake because then we severely underestimate the tactics and character of our enemy.
In the ancient Chinese military classic, The Art of War (attributed to Sun Tzu), it is commented, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
Let us then prepare for battle and understand what makes Satan happy, because that makes God sad.
Delight no. 1
Blake Labaree says - "If we, being friends of God, can be moved against Him in action, word, or thought, the Devil will have accomplished something that he could never do by his own hand, chiefly, the disgrace of the child of God bringing reproach on God’s name". Most common reason: our pride.
Delight no. 2
Being unforgiving or holding a grudge against our fellow men. Gossiping, backbiting, judging. Common enough?
Delight no. 3
Giving in to Satan's pressures. Very common. We try and take the easy was out without pausing to think if that is the way God would want. Remember, Satan can cause a lot of pressure, so much so that we break and give in and turn away from our goal of delighting God our father or doing His work. This pressure can be at work, financial mountains, personal sickness, anything to break us. We are not the only ones. Remember 1Th 2:18 "Therefore we wanted to come to you--even I, Paul, time and again--but Satan hindered us". If he can hinder Paul, who are we?
To hinder is to impede. To not let it happen by cutting off the way. Satan is all about cutting off our way to the destination God planned for us.
Delight no. 4
Our will and way over Gods will and way. A very common act that most of us do without a second thought. Let's call it "unconscious rebellion". This state is so actively promoted by the devil and his cohort that it spares none. He uses temptation, fear, pride, ego as well as a fond memory of a past sin even though one asked for forgiveness. All this and more and every other weakness of man are in his arsenal.
And in the midst of all of this is our tendency to sin, "idolate", hate, prejudice, and judge.
How can we overcome?
Corrie Ten Boom, a holocaust survivor, who's story we talked about in an earlier post (you Can read it here) has this to say- "When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy.”
These are reasons as well as the antidote to overcome the poison of Satan. Three very vital practices that every child of God can employ: Fellowship. Study of the Word and Prayer.
Today, can we identify areas of our life which delight Satan? Can we become actively conscious of them and use Corrie Ten Booms advice to overcome all those weaknesses which delight the devil.
A very relevant sermon on how we can overcome was given by Pastor Jolly Raj, of the Bethel Methodist Church in India, and we strongly recommend you hear it here.
