THE DEVIL GOES TO CHURCH

Spend Time in Prayer

We overcome doubt with faith. Satan wants to make us doubt all that God has said we are in and through Him. Consider this quote from Henri Nouwen as you prepare to pray:

What the Father said to Jesus the Son, God also says to us: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3: 22 NRSV). Dear friends, I want you to hear this: what is said of Jesus is said of you. I know this can be hard to affirm. You are the beloved daughter or son of God. Can you believe it? Can you hear it not only in your head through your physical ears but in your gut, hear it so that your whole life can be turned around? Go to the scriptures and read: “I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have written your name in the palm of my hand from all eternity. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you in your mother’s womb. I love you. I embrace you. You are mine and I am yours and you belong to me.” You have to hear this, because if you can hear this divine voice speak to you from all eternity, then your life will become more and more the life of the beloved, because that is who you are. When you start believing this, this spiritual knowledge will grow until it transforms your daily life. You will still have rejections and you will still have pain and losses, but you will live them no longer as a person searching for his or her identity. You will live them as the beloved. You will live your pain and anguish, your successes and failures, as one who knows who you are. And that’s not easy. Most of us constantly fail to claim the truth of who we truly are.

— Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life by Henri J. M. Nouwen

With one or two other people, share one doubt you have about yourself, how you perceive others feel about you, or even how you think God feels about you.

Now, using this quote from Nouwen to voice your prayers, pray for each other to “know” that each of you is God’s “beloved” son or daughter.

We overcome doubt with truth of God’s word.
Pray through Psalm 19 to reaffirm your faith in the power and promises of God’s word:
“The heavens are telling the glory of God; they are a marvelous display of his craftsmanship. Day and night they keep on telling about God. Without a sound or word, silent in the skies, their message reaches out to all the world. The sun lives in the heavens where God placed it and moves out across the skies as radiant as a bridegroom going to his wedding, or as joyous as an athlete looking forward to a race! The sun crosses the heavens from end to end, and nothing can hide from its heat.

God’s laws are perfect. They protect us, make us wise, and give us joy and light. God’s laws are pure, eternal, just. They are more desirable than gold. They are sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb. For they warn us away from harm and give success to those who obey them.

But how can I ever know what sins are lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. And keep me from deliberate wrongs; help me to stop doing them. Only then can I be free of guilt and innocent of some great crime.
May my spoken words and unspoken thoughts be pleasing even to you, O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer.”