Meditate
On
It Is Written
Then
Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship
the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
Matthew
4:10
When
negative thoughts come your way, you must not give them time to take root in
your heart. That correlates with the wise saying that you can’t stop birds from
flying over your head, but you can surely stop them from building a nest on
your head. We can’t stop the enemy from attacking our minds, but we can surely
defend ourselves with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (see
Eph. 6:17). God’s Word is infallible, unshakable, and everlasting (see Isa.
40:8, 1 Pet. 1:25). Our Lord Jesus Himself showed us what to do when we are
under attack by the devil. Three times He was tempted by Satan in the
wilderness. Each time, His response was the same—He quoted the written Word of
God. Against each attack, His response was to say, “It is written” (see Matt.
4:1–11).
I know
of believers who say, “God spoke to me and told me that He will do that for
me.” I want to encourage you not to go by what you think the Lord said to you.
You cannot fight the devil by saying, “God spoke to me,” apart from the written
Word. Please understand that I am not at all against God speaking to you, but
coming against the enemy and his attacks with “God spoke to me” is not what our
Lord Jesus did.
My
friend, if you want to combat the enemy’s attacks, stick to the pattern that
our Lord Jesus showed us. In the first temptation, the devil challenged our
Lord Jesus to prove His identity, saying, “If You are the Son of God, command
that these stones become bread” (Matt. 4:3). Don’t you think it is interesting
that our Lord did not rely on what His Father had audibly spoken over Him at
the River Jordan? A voice had come from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). Yet, the Lord did not point Satan
to the spoken word of God. Over and over again, He declared, “It is written.”
Now, if the Son of God used “it is written” to defeat the devil, how much more
you and I need to.
When
fear grips your heart or evil thoughts plague your mind, quote His written
Word!
BLESSINGS
JOSEPH
PRINCE
