While Satan can tempt us to sin, he can’t control our reaction to his temptation. Our job as Christians, when we are tempted by Satan, is to put on the full armor of God and say no to his schemes. And I have found that the most powerful way to avoid allowing temptation to become sin is to stand on the Word of God and use Scripture against the evil one.
I really believe that when we, not only know the Scriptures, but use them against Satan, we can flip the script against him and turn what he meant for evil to bringing victory over sin and glory to God.
Our role as believers is to so know the Scriptures that when a temptation comes against us that we can quote Bible verses to overcome the fiery darts of the wicked one. I like what Pastor Rick Warren says here: “Every time Satan suggested a temptation, Jesus countered by quoting Scripture.”1 We see this powerfully illustrated in (Matthew 4) when Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Three times Satan hurled a temptation against Jesus and in all three cases Jesus quoted a verse of Scripture from the book of Deuteronomy (Read Matthew 4:1-11). The result: Satan had to flee.
No wonder the psalmist tells us: “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:11). I contend that when we hide God’s Word in our heart we become Satan’s worst nightmare, for he is no match when we use and believe God’s Word against him. The challenge before us is how can we do this?
The solution is simple: Read your Bible daily, meditate often on what you are reading, and commit to memory important portions of Scripture. There are no shortcuts here. Satan knows he is powerless against the Christian who is armed with the anointed Word. My friends, we will never be able to stop temptations from being hurled at us, but we can through the power of God’s Word, say no to every one of Satan’s fiery darts, by knowing and believing our Bible. And oh yes, in the process of reading the sacred Scriptures daily you will learn to fall more in love with Jesus!
“The solution is simple: Read your Bible daily, meditate often on what you are reading, and commit to memory important portions of Scripture.”
A powerful 3 point strategy against the wiles of Satan but given your consistent call to prayer, I would add a fourth point from Matthew that you will agree makes it all work:
“And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.” An appeal to our Father in heaven.