Six Ways Satan Attacks Your Children
We don’t need to rehearse with you how Satan is winning the battle with too many young people. You can see it all around you. So exactly how is he winning this battle? There are at least six areas Satan is focused on that parents need to be proactive against: Satan has packaged lethargy and apathy in an appealing way, and as a result many Christian families lack proper knowledge.
Many parents do not make the time to inform themselves properly about what is the Truth. They do not review what their children are learning in the classroom. They long ago stopped monitoring the media their children are consuming. The prophet Hosea warned that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).
Satan has conned Christian families into believing there is no reason to arm ourselves for combat.
Individuals who would never consider sending young men into battle without proper training and equipment will freely send their own children off to battle without any armor. When Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, he admonished them:
“Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”” (Eph. 6:13-17, KJV).
Ask yourself: Are my children and grandchildren adequately armed?
Satan has also blinded parents from the need to protect the hearts and minds of our children.
In Matthew 22:36 a lawyer asks Jesus: “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus responds “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matt. 22:37-38, KJV).
We believe most individuals who identify themselves as Christians love God with their heart and soul. But what about their minds? How can we expect our children to love God with all of their mind when it is being filled up with anti-God sentiment?
Satan has attacked Christian families by convincing them that spiritual training should only take place within the confines of the church building.
This is a dangerous approach to training up your children and grandchildren. Nothing can compare to consistent biblical learning within the home.
The fifth area in which Satan has succeeded in attacking Christian families is in casting an incomplete portrait of God.
Many individuals today believe in God—but He has been recast to simply a God of “love and grace.” They view Him as a grandfatherly like figure who would never rebuke, chasten, or judge. They have discounted the wrath and righteousness of God. Many have forgotten or dismissed the fact that He will not tolerate sin and that sin separates us from God (Isa. 59:2). Many generations have not learned a healthy fear of God.
The sixth way in which Satan is attacking Christian families is by confusing our priorities.
When we look at the mammoth homes we are now building to live in we must ask the question, which is more important: Haven or Heaven? In Matthew 6:24 Jesus observed “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” In fact, the Bible condemns covetousness as idolatry (Col. 3:5). But, year after year, society reinforces the idea of materialism and “getting to the top.”
Satan has mounted his attack. Now is the time for Christian families to choose whom they will serve. May we all have the strength and determination to stand up and declare, as Joshua did “but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Jos. 24:15).