“So that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.”
– 2 Corinthians 2:11“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
– 1 Peter 5: 8
As I was pondering these verses this week, and thinking about how Satan prowls around this earth seeking for ways to deceive and destroy us and how we often are ignorant of his schemes…. my mind envisioned the following scenario.
It was Monday morning, the first day of the new fiscal year and Satan sent out a meeting notice to his marketing team with the subject line: “Plans to Destroy Humanity.” The meeting notice was followed by an urgent message alert demanding mandatory attendance at the meeting.
Later that day, the meeting time arrived, and Satan and all his evil marketing cohorts piled into the conference room. It was full, standing room only, as everyone knew that when Satan said “mandatory” he meant business. Satan was very thorough and ensured a teleconference number was included so that even those away on business would have no excuse for not participating in this important meeting.
Satan stood to his feet and addressed the crowd. “As you all know, it’s time to lay out the Plan of Destruction for the new year. Time to devise strategies for winning spiritual battles within the minds of Christ followers. Let’s think outside of the box and remember the six sigma 5Ds: Distraction, Division, Deception, Destruction, and Debt. Now, who wants to go first?”
No one was surprised that Arrogance spoke up first. He always tried to show off in front of Satan and liked to showboat at meetings. “We could overstimulate their brains with mindless television commentary and political news. Provide distractions with political chaos so that they will be glued to their television sets instead of spending time reading the Bible or talking to God.”
To which Satan replied, “Very good! The more division and distraction we can cause the weaker they will be.”
Leering at Arrogance as he spoke, Jealousy suggested, “Fill them with pride, so they only focus on themselves feeling that they deserve to be the center of attention. Self-promoting, self-centered, only concerned about their own needs and desires.”
Knowing that suggestion was a stab at him, Arrogance glared back at Jealousy and quickly added, “Attack their sweet spot, envy. Parade luxury, financial success, and comfort before them so that their focus is on obtaining more possessions and not on doing the will of God.”
“Ah, yes, both good suggestions,” Satan replied. Arrogance didn’t like Jealousy getting kudos from Satan as well but felt he had the upper hand having come up with two good ideas when his adversary only had one.
Satan turned to the others in the room and asked, “What about the rest of you, don’t you have any input?”
Afraid of the wrath that might follow if they didn’t speak up, one by one the other demons began shouting out ideas:
“Make it easy for them to get buried in debt to perpetuate the desire to gain more possessions. Feed them the lie, that everyone does it, that it’s okay to live beyond your means so that they will become enslaved by financial burden further distracting them from God’s call on their life,” said Materialism.
“Yes, and as they are becoming more self-centered, striving to gain more possessions and becoming deeper in debt, they will buy into the temptation of believing that work is far more important than time spent with family,” added Egotism.
Malice chimed in, “And as they are working more hours chasing their dreams, couples will become physically and emotionally exhausted so that they have no time for intimacy in their marriages. That is always a good way for us to find a foothold to cause division.”
“Yes, yes,” agreed Worldliness, “and that exhaustion will make them too tired to read their Bibles.”
“…. and make them too tired to get up to go to church,” said Laziness.
The demons were really getting on a roll now. The suggestions were quickly coming one after another:
“We should continue to entice them with the notion that they are ‘good enough’ on their own without God. Make them feel comfortable that their own self-accomplishments and self-righteousness will buy them a ticket into heaven,” suggested Chaos, “So many humans already believe that, it’s a good one we should keep promoting.”
Mayhem added, “Let’s not forget to keep them occupied with their electronic gizmos and gadgets and social media following. That is always good for distracting them from what is really important and keeps them from personal and physical interactions with others. That has proved really good at preventing the spread of the Gospel in the past!”
The last demon in the room was getting nervous because he had not thought of anything to add. Knowing he had to contribute somehow, he timidly muttered: “how about scantily clad women on tv and in magazines and internet ads?”
To which Satan immediately perked up and said, “Yes! Lure men into lustful promiscuity and bring them down with moral decay. Make the world numb to sexual impurity and perversion. This is one of my favorites!”
Satan congratulated everyone in the room for another job well done. In their excitement making plans on how to carry out these actions, they all left the conference room and hurried back to their desks, completely forgetting about those that had dialed in on the phone.
Although this was written somewhat humorously to perk your interest, it is a serious subject and not one to be taken lightly. Satan DOES seek ways that he can cause division and distraction to Christians. He DOES seek to deceive and destroy us. We must remain ever vigilant with the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-17), pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) and read God’s word daily (Hebrews 4:12). We must keep our eyes on Christ and His calling on our life (Hebrews 12:1-5) and not let the worries and enticements of the world around us be a distraction and lure to sin (Philippians 4:6-9).
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