“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Ephesians 6:11

We, as humans, can have very protective instincts. We protect our homes and personal property. Mothers and fathers will risk it all to protect their children. Husbands will stand up and protect their wives. It is instilled in us. We are ready to defend at any given moment. The minute we believe we are being attacked in any form or fashion, our defenses come up. So what about your spiritual defenses? How careful are we to stand up and protect and defend our soul from attack?

If an intruder breaks into your home, he will try and be sneaky, but there are signs. A broken window, an alarm going off, a TV missing. Somewhere there will be evidence of an attack. But what about an attack on us spiritually? Is there evidence of that? Is the devil too sneaky for us to recognize when we are being targeted? He tries to be. But we have an arsenal of weapons in our possession to use against him. It is God’s Holy Word. The devil knows this. So he will plan sneak attacks you don’t see coming. We must always be prepared.

In Nehemiah chapter 6, Nehemiah’s enemies were doing all they could to bring him down. They tried several tactics, but Nehemiah was prayed up and prepared for them.

In 6:1-4, the enemy tried to distract him. If satan can get your mind off God and His plan for you, he can delay or deter you. I can say from experience that this is easy to let happen if you’re not paying attention or not looking. All it takes is one inconvenience or problem for your mind to start worrying instead of praying. Guilty! Worry is my worst distraction. The devil knows if he can get me worried about my children, my finances, my job, etc. then he has taken my mind off Godly things.

In 6:5-9, the next thing the enemy tries to do is threaten him. This is a tricky one. How can satan threaten us? He can’t hurt us. We belong to God, right? While this is true, he can threaten other ways. He can threaten our peace, our wellbeing if we let him. A rebellious child that we constantly worry about. A phone call from a bill collector that we try to ignore. This goes hand in hand with distraction. If he can distract us with these things, it threatens our peace.

Last, in 6:10-14, the enemy tried to discredit Nehemiah. If satan can’t distract you or threaten you, he will try to discredit you and your testimony. He will try to talk you into the things that you would not normally do. He will try and make you believe that one little glass won’t send you to hell. One dirty joke told to a coworker is fine. It’s not like you mean it, right? What most don’t realize is that we are the ONLY bible some people will ever read. Satan knows this. So he will try his best to discredit us.

Satan is certainly not limited to these three things. He will try everything in the book to attack us. Especially since he knows his time is growing shorter and shorter. The only way is to be prepared. Put on the whole armor of God. Stay prayed up. Stay read up in His word. So that when satan attacks, we will be able to stand and defend ourselves.