We often think of spiritual warfare as powerful prayers, authoritative declarations, or encounters with the demonic through deliverance.  That is part of the equation, but building proactive walls of defense is a better strategy, in the same way as keeping burglars away from  your property with great security measures is far superior to a confrontation with a stranger in your home in the middle of the night.

Scripture often calls on us to guard our hearts and minds because those are most often the entry points of the enemy.  The most comprehensive statement about this may be found in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Phil. 4:4-9, emphasis added).

One of the most common and yet undetected strategies of the enemy is to create dissatisfaction in our hearts and minds. In some ways, that was his first ploy recorded in scripture.  Satan spoke to Eve and said, “Did God really say ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’” (Gen. 3:1)?  With these words he slyly implied that God was stingy…that he was the kind of God who would withhold good things from his children.  Eve went on to say that they could eat from any tree in the garden except one – the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Satan countered by implying that the forbidden tree was actually the best tree in the garden and the only one that really mattered. Instead of being grateful for the abundance God had provided, Eve suddenly focused on the one thing God had withheld.  Suddenly, she thought that all her happiness and significance was to be found in the one tree that was out of her reach, even though the Tree of Life was always available.

In the same way, when God led the Hebrews out of Egypt after 400 years of slavery, they quickly stopped being thankful for their new found freedom and the miraculous deliverance God had provided.  They quickly stopped being grateful for the land God had promised them that was actually only a few days away and began to focus on their immediate desires.  Within days they began to complain about their lack of meat, their lack of water on demand, and the “boring manna” they ate each day, and so forth.  Through their complaints, they immediately cast God as a God who did not care about  their needs, who only had catastrophe planned for their future, and who brought them out of slavery only to abandon them in the desert.

Once we begin to focus on “the one thing” we desire that God has yet to provide and forget about all the other blessings he has given us, we begin to see God though the eyes of Eve and the Israelites who questioned God’s goodness, his intentions, and his provision for his people.  Through our own accusations, our trust begins to diminish and we come into agreement with the enemy.  Unfortunately, this focus on what I don’t have rather than on what I do have is human nature and a tendency we must guard against.  Madison Avenue preys on this idea that my happiness is always found in one more thing.

Intentional prayer with thanksgiving is the weapon against this universal scheme of Satan.  As Thanksgiving approaches, we are reminded of this principal but would do well to practice it year-round.  To rehearse all that God has done for me in the past, all that he is doing in the present, and his promises for my future is a form of worship and keeps my heart and mind fixed on him as good, as my provider, as my savior, and my deliverer…even when I might be facing extraordinary challenges. 

Unfortunately, I keep running into people in counseling who have come to define love as someone giving them whatever they want, whenever they want it.  No matter how much they have been given, the minute one desire is withheld, they declare they are not loved. They feel abandoned and betrayed at the first “no,” no matter how much has been given and how many needs have been met before.  A good father says “no” or “not yet” to many desires of his young children as they grow and mature.  Our Father has not lied about the pain that will inevitably come our way in a fallen world.  These responses to our prayers and hardships that come are not evidence that he doesn’t love us, but his presence and his grace to face these hardships is the evidence of his love.

Satan loves to bait us with that attitude whenever God says “no” or “not now” to any request or any longing we have in our lives.  The key to overcoming Satan in these situations is to have an unbreakable confidence in the nature of God that he is good, he is love, he hears our prayers, and he always is working in our best interest.  The practice of thankfulness continually reinforces our faith in his character and the belief that he is good, even when a longing or a need seems to go unanswered for the moment.

If Eve had believed with rock solid certainty before her sin that God was a generous God who met her every need and protected her from things her flesh desired but that would destroy her in the end, she would not have taken and eaten.  We need that same certainty before Satan whispers again that God is holding out on us and keeping from us some singular source of our happiness apart from him.

A journal with all the things we are thankful for in our past and in our present would be a great Thanksgiving project (singularly or as a family) that would be a helpful reminder when Satan comes to tempt our mind and our hearts. Adding to it daily through the year, would also be a strong testimony against his lies.  The testimonies of thanks would be a great tradition to be read and added to each Thanksgiving.

The Bible is full of moments when monuments were created (piles of stone) as a reminder of what God had done for his people in a certain circumstance, traditions such as Passover and the other feast days, and the Lord’s Supper.  These are all testimonies of the love and care of God for his people. Some personal reminders (testimonies) of God’s goodness to you, would also be a blessing and a powerful weapon when the devil comes calling.

As a pastor, it is not uncommon to speak with believers who have been “offended by God” because he didn’t act in the way they thought he should. A child died, a marriage ended in divorce, a promotion was given to someone less deserving, and cancer was diagnosed in a young woman.  All of these situations and more challenge our faith.

Here’s what we need to know.  The enemy loves to whisper that God took the child, sent the cancer, and didn’t save the marriage when he could have.  One of his primary strategies is to plant a seed of doubt in our minds about the goodness of God.  That is the first diagram in his playbook.  To entice them to sin, he sowed a seed of doubt in the minds of Adam and Eve about God’s heart for them.  He insinuated that God might be withholding good things and even the best things from them because he didn’t completely love them.   In response, they took offense at God and ate the forbidden fruit. 

It is human to hope that God keeps every crisis and every tragedy from us from the time we are born until we step across the threshold of heaven.  But that is not what we are promised. Every person of faith in scripture dealt with trials.  Jesus told his disciples, “In this world you will have trouble (Jn.16:33).  Paul reminds us, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles” (2 Cor. 1:3-4). We will be in trouble.  We could list dozens of other scriptures that confirm our dilemma. 

Many times, God does keep tragedy and disappointment from our door.  But there are other times when we have to face the harsh realities of living in a fallen and hostile world. The promise is not a trouble-free life, but that God will meet us in our troubles and give us the grace to endure. He will then set us on a level place with seasons of blessing again.  

The difficulty is in holding on when what we are experiencing doesn’t make sense to us or rubs against our understanding of how God works. However, when things go our way and make sense, not much faith is required. Greater faith is required when we are facing that which doesn’t go our way or meet our expectations. What do we do when we believe we had faith for healing, but our loved one died anyway?  What do we do when we believe we stood on the promises of God, but our marriage dissolved in spite of that?  What do we do when we have cried out to the Lord for years but God has not yet sent us a mate or given us a pregnancy?

Those are the moments that Satan rushes in to accuse the Lord.  If we are not careful, we will believe the accusations, judge God as unjust or uncaring, and distance ourselves from him.  We may deny it, but somewhere deep within we may hold a grudge against our Creator. Our view of him will be tarnished and our prayers will lack conviction.

We will all have to face a mystery at some point about unanswered prayers.  So how do we face that moment?  We must learn to judge God on the basis of what we do understand, rather than on the basis of what we don’t understand.  When Satan comes to accuse, we must already know what we believe about God and stand on his Word and our past experiences with his faithfulness. 

I believe the definitive verse in scripture comes from the mouth of Jesus.  “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (Jn.14:9).  How much does God love us?  How much did Jesus love us?  How much is God willing to sacrifice for us to be saved?  How much was Jesus willing to sacrifice?  Is God willing to heal?  Was Jesus willing to heal?  Does God send tragedy?  Did Jesus send tragedy?  Does God drive away the imperfect and broken sinner?  Did Jesus drive them away?  

No matter what, our faith must rest not only in the power of God but also in the character and the goodness of God.  We must make up our mind about him before the accuser comes. We have to be able to say. “Even though I am disappointed and confused, I still believe God is good and that he loves me. He will see me through this and set me once again on a level place.”  

How often have we judged God to be unfair or unloving because of one prayer he didn’t answer while ignoring the hundreds that he did answer and the way he cared for us even when we had not prayed? Take note of God’s care now and all the ways he has loved you, so when the accuser comes, you can take your stand.

Job could make no sense of the tragedies that had come his way.  He asked lots of questions. He wrestled with the mystery of the loss and suffering he encountered although he was a righteous man.  But in the end, God declared that Job had not failed to speak the truth about God and so God restored his losses and blessed his life in greater ways than before his suffering. Remember the old saying, “God is good…all the time.  When we are not sure of anything else, we can be sure of that and, being sure of that, we can hold on through the fires. 

Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Exodus 33:18-19

In the book of Exodus, a poignant moment between Moses and the God of Israel is recorded. Moses, in a very bold moment, asks the Lord to see his glory. The implication is that Moses was asking to see the face of God. The Lord responded by agreeing to show Moses his goodness. In one sense, the text tells us that God’s response was for Moses’ protection. God tells him that no mortal can see the face of God and live. And yet, I believe seeing the goodness of God is even more revealing than seeing his face.

Seeing the goodness of God first is instructive for us. This passage in Exodus reveals that the goodness of God is his glory. For us to truly know God or understand God we must see his goodness first and then understand everything else in that context. God mentions two aspects of his goodness right away with Moses – mercy and compassion. Those both flow out of his basic nature of love. John tells us that God is love. His goodness is the constant expression of that love. When you love someone you always do good to that person.

If we were to see God’s holiness first, we might understand all of God’s actions in terms of holiness and his rejection of sin. Every act of God then would seem like the actions of a harsh judge or an angry God. Most people filter the activity of God in the Old Testament through his holiness only and see his judgments as expressions of that. Holiness is undoubtedly a major characteristic of God, but if all we see is his holiness then all we will see is judgment. He will be a God easy to fear but not easy to love.

If we see the goodness of God first, then we will understand his judgments in the context of discipline as a loving Father disciplines his children or in the context of his judgment being the last thing he wanted to do.   Man’s persistent and unrepentant sin sometimes gives him no choice but it is never his first thought or his heart for us. In our personal relationship with the Father, we need to focus on his love and goodness and give thanks for that before we look at anything else. His goodness and love assure us that he is for us, not against us. They assure us that he always wants what’s best for us and is always working on our behalf. They assure us that we are welcome into his presence and that he is eager to answer prayers that will bless us and bring about good because he is good.

Many believers have much to overcome in this arena…especially if they were raised in a “hell fire and brimstone” church that preached the judgments of God and the fury of hell every week as a motivation for righteous living. One of the most famous sermons in American history was preached by Jonathan Edwards during the Great Awakening (1700’s) and was entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” That was not a podcast you wanted to listen to just before going to sleep. It pictured all of us suspended above the fires of hell by a thin thread and suggested that God was just waiting to severe the line with his celestial scissors.

If you grew up with that view of God, then a warm, loving relationship with the Father is a monumental task. Everything that goes wrong in our lives will probably be understood as an expression of God’s anger toward us and we will see him as our adversary rather than our loving Savior. Jesus will seem like the antithesis of the Father and the statement of Jesus that if we have seen him we have seen the Father will simply be confusing. Moses was shown the goodness of God first. That is why he was able to stand before God and plead for mercy on Israel’s behalf on several occasions. He was able to plead for mercy because he knew God was merciful and that in heaven, mercy triumphs over judgment. Moses even knew that Jehovah was searching for someone to ask for that expression of who he is.

This perspective is critical. When a loved one is diagnosed with stage-four cancer, our first thought as believers is to try to make sense of what has happened. If the goodness of God is not our primary filter for the circumstance, then we will assume that either God has visited the cancer on us because he is angry about some sin or our lack of faith or that he is indifferent about our suffering because holiness is the only issue. In that moment with that perspective, we will have little hope and will either wait out the cancer with resignation or try to buy God off with some “righteous works” we can do.

If the goodness of God is our filter, we can assume that the cancer is not God’s will and begin to press in for healing with hope. Even if sin has opened the door for cancer or the activity of the enemy, we can know that repentance and forgiveness will shut that door and open the door for the goodness of God to still be the primary color of our lives.

I have seen believers face death or the death of a loved one with differing sets of glasses. Those who saw God primarily through the lenses of judgment, had no faith for healing and left the cemetery with a since of condemnation and bitterness. Those who looked at circumstances through the lenses of God’s goodness were able to pray with faith for healing and even if healing didn’t come they were able to see the love and compassion of God at the gravesite. They left closer to the Father than when they arrived knowing that God’s goodness would see them through the grief.

What do you see first when you look at God? The perspective is critical because it defines everything else. A God of goodness offered himself through his Son as a loving sacrifice for lost people. A God whose primary trait is judgment simply poured out his wrath on a Son who seemed more abused than loved. The way we see God first, will determine our view of everything, will totally affect our prayer life, and will totally define our faith. Spend time thanking God for his goodness, meditating on his goodness, and declaring his goodness over every circumstance of your life. It makes all the difference. Blessings today… because if his goodness.