{"id":25979,"date":"2024-11-06T01:24:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T08:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/?post_type=blog&p=25979"},"modified":"2025-02-24T15:50:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T22:50:02","slug":"where-will-the-devil-attack-you-next","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/where-will-the-devil-attack-you-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Will the Devil Attack You Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Usually the month of May is a pretty fun time of year. Days are longer, the weather is nice, and Justin Timberlake memes<\/a> take over social media.<\/p>\n

Those never get old.<\/p>\n

This year, though, May didn\u2019t end soon enough for me. My hometown fought off tornado warnings and crazy thunderstorms all month long, and record rainfall caused all sorts of problems. The basement in my new house flooded, resulting in thousands of dollars of repairs and hours of wrestling insurance claims. The air conditioner in my wife\u2019s car broke down \u2014 twice \u2014 leading to more <\/em>expensive repairs. I won\u2019t bore you with all the details, but it seems every day<\/em> last month we were hit with bad (expensive) news after bad (expensive) news.<\/p>\n

#FirstWorldProblems<\/h4>\n

I\u2019ll admit: These are \u201cfirst world problems.\u201d I don\u2019t really have anything to complain about in comparing my \u201cproblems\u201d to most of the struggles going on around the world.<\/p>\n

Still, you know what this feels like, right? \u201cWhen it hasn\u2019t been your day, your week, your month, or even your year\u201d? (Hi, \u201cFriends\u201d fans.) Sometimes it feels like you just can\u2019t catch a break, and it\u2019s exhausting to get back up time and time again after being hit and hit and hit by bad news, bad breaks and bad luck.<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s (unfortunately) normal to have these trials, but recently I heard something at my church that made me think about my crummy month in a new light.<\/p>\n

Greatest strength and greatest weakness<\/h4>\n

My church recently went through a teaching series looking at the Holy Spirit and our spiritual gifts. One of our teachers brought up an interesting point I hadn\u2019t really considered before:<\/p>\n

The devil knows what your gifts and strengths are, and he\u2019s going to attack you the hardest in your strongest areas, because he doesn\u2019t want you to be effective.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Look, I really don\u2019t understand spiritual warfare<\/a>; the good-vs.-evil spirit world is something I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll ever fully understand on earth. But I do believe it\u2019s real. I believe Satan is real, and I know he is hell-bent on destroying and sabotaging God\u2019s people. We can have confidence he won\u2019t win in the end, but he\u2019s putting up a pretty good fight in the meantime.<\/p>\n

For years now I\u2019ve known that my primary spiritual gift is encouragement. \u201cWords of affirmation\u201d is my love language, and in just about any personality inventory or strengths finder test I take, something about encouragement is at the top of my list.<\/p>\n

When I was facing all those frustrating setbacks last month, I had trouble putting words to how I was feeling. Yes, I was frustrated, stressed, annoyed, tired \u2014 all those things \u2014 but they weren\u2019t the primary emotion I was feeling. Hearing that teaching about the devil and spiritual gifts helped me realize: I was discouraged<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That is the word I was looking for. I was discouraged, and that powerful emotion took over. It shifted my mood, altered my thoughts, and actually kept me from using my dominant gift.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re deeply discouraged, it\u2019s a lot harder to encourage others. If your well is empty, you have nothing left to pass on to those around you, and that\u2019s exactly how I\u2019ve been feeling.<\/p>\n

Satan doesn\u2019t play fair<\/h4>\n

That small shift in perspective has been important for me. Yes, sometimes bad things just happen, and I don\u2019t think every single bad thing necessarily has colossal spiritual consequences.<\/p>\n

But sometimes maybe it does. I believe God has specific plans in mind for me to accomplish (Ephesians 2:10<\/a>), and if Satan can weigh me down so significantly that I can\u2019t act in my primary gifting, that\u2019s a major victory for the one determined to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10<\/a>).<\/p>\n

What about your vulnerabilities?<\/h4>\n

I\u2019m still pretty upset about the hand I\u2019ve been dealt the last month. It still seems unfair, and I\u2019m pretty sick of getting bad news. It\u2019s on some level understandable for me to slip into discouragement.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s what the devil wants. He doesn\u2019t want me to write this post that might provide a spark of encouragement to you. He doesn\u2019t want you to realize his dirty, unfair strategies.<\/p>\n

Maybe your spiritual gift is giving, and you\u2019ve been hit hard financially or lost your job.<\/p>\n

Maybe you love to serve, but you\u2019re facing an illness keeping you from helping in the ways you wish you could.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re a leader, but the teams you\u2019re on shrug you off because of your age.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s helpful for all of us to do two things:<\/p>\n