Standing On the Promises

Here's a little tip for you. If you write a book entitled "The Deadly Darts of the Devil," be prepared to have all of those darts thrown at you repeatedly. Honestly, it seems like even since the Lord allowed me to write and publish that book, the devil has been on my back nonstop. Just in the past couple of weeks alone, I've faced every one of the darts that I wrote about. God is trying to do a work through me, and Satan is not happy about it.

Along the same lines, the lady who teaches the ladies' Sunday School class at church has been teaching a series about the fiery darts of the wicked. She, too, has been the victim of multiple attacks lately. In fact, as I listened to her lesson last Sunday, I was reminded of how much it reminded me of the book I had written. It was like we both got the same message from God, but we were simply sharing it in a different way. The main difference was that while my book talked mostly about identifying the darts of the devil, her lessons revolved around defending ourselves from them.

As she discussed the various pieces of the armor of God, I was reminded of a song that I haven't heard in years. The name of the song is "You Can't Stand on Promises If You Don't Know What They Are." Wow, isn't that good? The Word of God is our sword, but do we know how to use it?

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He was able to fight off the devil using Scripture. He could do that because He knew the verses. We won't always have a Bible at our fingertips when Satan attacks. For this reason, we need to memorize it. We need to hide God's Word in our hearts so that it will be available when the fiery darts start flying. While John 3:16 is an excellent verse, it won't always be enough to protect us. We need to know more. We need to study our weapon and learn how to use it so that we will be able to withstand the constant attacks of the devil.

When was the last time your memorized a verse? Last week? Last year? Last decade? As we age, it gets harder and harder to memorize Scripture, but I honestly believe the older we get, the more we're going to need it. Let's get better about learning our weapon. After all, the promises of God won't do us much good if we don't know them well enough to claim them.