Identifying 4 of Satan’s Top Tactics

Tom Brady has been hailed as a sports legend for winning his seventh Super Bowl last month. At times, it has seemed like the ageless NFL superstar is invincible. But that’s not the case.

In 2007, Brady’s New England Patriots entered the Super Bowl as huge favorites against the underdog New York Giants. The Patriots were on the verge of being only the second team ever to go undefeated for an entire season and playoffs. Led by Eli Manning, the Giants pulled off an incredible upset, winning 17-14, including the famous “helmet catch” by wide receiver David Tyree.

Sometimes underdogs win. The biblical story of David and Goliath is the classic example. Goliath was nine feet tall. David was a young boy. Total mismatch, right?

Right! But not in the direction appearances would indicate. David knew there was a total mismatch … in his favor! He proclaimed, “The battle is the Lord’s!” (1 Samuel 17:47) God was on his side. The advantage was David’s!

You and I face a formidable foe, certainly. Satan’s arsenal is designed to intimate.

• Deception – He’s a master at it, working against us in ways we often don’t detect in the moment.
• Discouragement – He knows how to leverage hardships to frustrate us.
• Distortion – He leads us down a path of catastrophizing when things go wrong, blowing our problems out of proportion.
• Dishonesty – He’s skilled at convincing us of lies about God, ourselves, and others.

His tactics are tough. But we’re not overmatched. He is! The battle is the Lord’s!

Revelation 12 previews Satan’s ultimate downfall. “The accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. … He has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Revelation 12:10, 12)

Against the devil’s arsenal, God wields His own weapon: the cross. Like the stone that knocked out Goliath, the cross dealt a decisive blow to Satan. He has no claim on us. Through the cross, God forgives us of our sins. As soldiers of the cross, He places His armor on us. He prepares us for battle.

If you go into battle convinced that you’re going to lose, you will. If the New York Giants had decided they were going to lose against the mighty Patriots, the final score may have been different. But the underdog team fought hard, and they won.

Jesus fought hard for you, and He won. The battle belongs to Him.

Because of that, we can enter each day – and each struggle – with the firm conviction that we are not overmatched. We are well-equipped. We are prepared. We are supported – never alone.

And because of those things, by God’s strength, we are favored!

This article builds on ideas contained in the introduction of Equipped: The Armor of God for Every Struggles. Click here for more about the book.