"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:" (1 Peter 5:8)
When I was 14, my dad would allow me to back the car out of the drive and put it under our only shade tree if I agreed to wash and polish it. Since I would do just about anything for the opportunity to drive, the 1958 Ford got washed and polished often.
One day while polishing the front bumper, I was shocked to discover that I was buffing the paint off. I had worn down a spot to the primer. Dad wasn't all that surprised but I was.
That is exactly how Satan works. He wears you down. Watchman Nee explains the work of the devil like this:
"Satan has, in fact, a plan against the saints of the Most High which is to wear them out. What is meant by this phrase, "wear out"? It has in it the idea of reducing a little this minute, then reducing a little further the next minute. Reduce a little today, reduce a little tomorrow. Thus the wearing out is almost imperceptible; nevertheless, it is a reducing.
The wearing down is scarcely an activity of which one is conscious, yet the end result is that there is nothing left. He will take away your prayer life little by little, and cause you to trust God less and less and yourself more and more, a little at a time. He will make you feel somewhat cleverer than before. Step by step, you are misled to rely more on your own gift, and step by step your heart is enticed away from the Lord.
"Now, were Satan to strike the children of God with great force at one time, they would know exactly how to resist the enemy since they would immediately recognize his work. He uses the method of gradualism to wear down the people of God." (Watchman Nee)
But God has promised us hope and we need only to remember the words of Isaiah, "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)
Jim Lee
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