{"id":93655,"date":"2026-02-03T16:58:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=93655"},"modified":"2026-02-03T17:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T23:00:25","slug":"every-day-is-a-new-opportunity-to-fight-the-devil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/every-day-is-a-new-opportunity-to-fight-the-devil\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Day Is a New Opportunity to Fight the Devil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\tby Gary Henry
\nvia WordPoints.com<\/a>\n

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world<\/em>” (I Peter 5:8-9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the New Testament, encouragements to resist Satan are often couched in militant terms. He is an adversary trying to destroy us, and in the strength of the rightful King, our Creator, this usurper must be fought: not merely disapproved of, but fought<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Yesterday’s victory over the devil doesn’t guarantee today’s. Today is its own fight, with new circumstances. Yet that is no cause for despair. Satan is God’s enemy, and we are privileged to fight in God’s army. One day, we shall share in His victory. But for now, we need vigilance and decisiveness in opposing our Lord’s adversary.<\/p>\n

One thing is for sure: Satan will keep coming back to do battle with us. His effort to win the war will fail, of course, but he will not give up until the end. The struggle, therefore, is a long-term trial of our commitment. Like any other kind of soldiers in the world, we grow weary and discouraged. The Hebrew writer said precisely what we need to hear: “You have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise<\/em>” (Hebrews 10:36).<\/p>\n

Today, we have an opportunity to do better on the battlefield than we did yesterday. This is a new chance to “fight the good fight of faith [and] lay hold on eternal life<\/em>” (I Timothy 6:12). Just as our daily bread is supplied one day at a time, our spiritual strength and sustenance are given only as they are needed. They will be sufficient for each day’s duty. We can be absolutely certain of that!<\/p>\n

So, it should be with courageous prayers that we arise and say hello to every sunrise. Yesterday is gone; today is another battlefield, a new opportunity to push back the enemy’s front lines. Following our Lord’s example of solitary morning prayer (Mark 1:35), we need to commit to God’s work as early in the day as possible. As someone has put it, “To walk with God is to rise each morning and choose Him before the world has a chance to speak.” We should “seize the day” before the devil has even had his Cheerios.<\/p>\n

“At the beginning of the day, before the heart unlocks itself to the world, God wants to open it to Himself; before the ear takes in the countless voices of the day, it should hear in the early hours the voice of the Creator and Redeemer” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Gary Henry via WordPoints.com “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (I Peter 5:8-9). In the New Testament, encouragements to resist Satan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[185],"class_list":["post-93655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-temptation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38555,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-reality-of-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":93655,"position":0},"title":"The Reality of Satan","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"Satan\" is a descriptive term that means \"adversary.\" \"Devil\" means \"slanderer.\" These terms aptly describe the being who is known as the enemy of God and His people. The first encounter with the devil is seen in Genesis 3, where the creature here slandered God's severity by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15765,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-christians-to-rebuke-satan-or-resist-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":93655,"position":1},"title":"Are Christians to rebuke Satan or resist Satan?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi.\u00a0I love your\u00a0exhaustive presentation of the literal days in Genesis!\u00a0 I am praying about how best to present this to our youth pastor, who is an old ager and teaches it privately to the youth.\u00a0 Thank you. My question involves prayer and whether we as God's children ought to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88203,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/fight-the-good-fight-of-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":93655,"position":2},"title":"Fight the Good Fight of Faith","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Keith Crews Christians are soldiers in the Lord's army. \"You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier\" (II Timothy 2:3). As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27462,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-respect-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":93655,"position":3},"title":"Should we respect Satan?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Below I copy and pasted from a web site with their beliefs on Satan and I emphasized the part that disturbs me. I was wondering what your thoughts on it are. To respect Satan is to exalt him and evil and is woefully contrary to God's word, in my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3897,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-the-devil-fall\/","url_meta":{"origin":93655,"position":4},"title":"When did the Devil fall?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please comment on the fall of the devil. Was it before the creation of the world (Earth) or after the creation of the world? Where was he thrown? Answer: The Bible contains only a little bit of material concerning the origins of Satan. See the lesson \"Satan\" in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66209,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/they-weigh-too-much-for-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":93655,"position":5},"title":"They Weigh Too Much for Me","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant Have you ever heard of Samuel Plimsoll? He was a member of the British Parliament back in the 1860s and 1870s. During this time there were some serious problems in the shipping industry. Numerous ships carrying loads of cargo were sinking in the ocean when they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Plimsoll-Mark-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}