For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2Corinthians 10: 3-5 (NIV)
A pretension is a lie. Remember, the devil can only give you something to consider. As far back as his conversation with Eve in the garden, all he can do is offer you something to consider. That argument or pretension is always in contradiction to the promises of God. Sure there may be some truth mixed in to confuse you, but the bulk of the argument is simply against God. It is always our choice whom to believe. Thoughts that are disobedient to Christ are where we start to get into trouble. It is where the enemy starts to win the battle. If in our grief we start to question the fairness of God or the goodness of God that is where we start to get into trouble. Because it is thoughts like those that make us stop our ministries, shake our walk, and destroy our faith. Do you think that someone who falls away from the faith fell overnight? It is usually a progression of disobedient thoughts, born out of some traumatic event. Grief can cloud the mind. The clouded mind allows thoughts to be considered that need to be made obedient. Those thoughts can develop into a stronghold and from there the devil just keeps winning ground until you go back to where the problem started and correct the thoughts. So secondly, when facing grief we must remember to keep our focus on God and trust in His promises, not our emotions.
Lastly, the third scheme that Satan uses during our periods of grief is to foster regret, guilt or anger in our lives. He knows that regret left unchecked ferments into condemnation. Yet the Bible teaches us very clearly:
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Romans 8: 1 (NLT)
Satan knows that as long as we are living under condemnation, we are living in our past. As long as we are living in our past, we become ineffective for Christ in the present and cannot even begin to fathom the rich future God has laid out before us. We can all probably think of someone who is free in Christ, except for that thing that happened to them when they were 15. But now they are 40. That is how dangerous regret can be. How much time and life it can suck out of us. That is not God's will for our lives. Jesus Christ went to the cross to forgive our past, protect our present, and provide our future.
But periods of grief often cloud our thinking. We can start to play the blame game or the "what if" game. You cannot make sense from the senseless beloved. As difficult as it may be we have to grasp the truth that is so simple there is nothing you can do about something that has already happened, except learn from it.
"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43: 18-19 (NIV)
Even in the desert that is our suffering, God is making a way. Even in the wasteland that is our grief, God is providing a stream. God is always doing a new thing in us beloved if we would just see it. But it lies ahead of us, not behind us. It lies in our future, not our past. Do you not perceive it? The enemy would love nothing more than to use your grief which is appropriate and steal, kill and destroy some more. He doesn't want you looking forward, he wants you looking back. Back to what could have been. Back to what you could have done better. The truth is we always could have done better in this life. But that does not erase everything that we did right. Don't let Satan use your proper regret against you and have it fester into improper condemnation. One is a feeling and the other is a condition. One is a moment in your soul and the other is a disease of your spirit.
As is anger. Anger is a poison in our veins. It is all consuming and parasitic in nature. It feeds off of itself. Whatever has caused our grief, we must be careful to not let anger dig itself into our being; as the Bible warns us:
