We live in an area that has a fair amount of crime.  We always have to be mindful of thieves or things around our house will go missing. There are steps we take to deter a thief or if necessary, scare one away.  Of course our first step is to lock doors, lock our cars and our fence.  But should a thief try to break into our home, we have a few other things that might scare him away.  We have alarms.  We have guard dogs.  We have weapons.

There is a powerful and tricky thief in America today.  He is robbing homes of peace.  He is robbing hearts of hope.  He is robbing the church of love and he is robbing our nation of truth.  But unfortunately, we spend most of our energy fighting with our fellow man over what’s been taken than actually dealing with the thief that took it.  We have let down our guard and Satan has come and robbed us blind.

In John 10:10 we find Jesus talking, and He compares Satan (a thief) to Himself (a good shepherd)…..”The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life”.

Satan is a thief.  It’s what he does.  He wants to rob us of our joy, our peace, our faith. He doesn’t care if we believe IN God, but doesn’t want us to believe God to do great things. We have filled our schedules with activity and our churches with programs…..the latest and greatest.  Meanwhile Satan sings praises to our busyness when he’s also quietly robbing us of our prayer lives.    No prayer = no dependence on the Holy Spirit.  No Spirit = no power.  And we wonder why our families are falling apart, our churches are in decline and our society is in such a mess?

We’ve been robbed by a master thief.

So the questions is:  How do we get rid of a thief?  Friends, maybe it’s time we scared the Thief away?  How?

I go back to the big 3 deterrents from the beginning of the post.  Alarms.  Guard Dogs.  Weapons.

#1 – Alarms

I Peter 5:6-9: humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 7Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 8Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.

Stay Alert!  If a thief tries to break into my house an alarm will go off.  But how often do we leave the most important things in our lives unguarded.  Our marriages.  Our children.  Our relationships.  Our hope.  We don’t attend to them.  We don’t stay alert to the enemies desire.  He wants to destroy all that is good.  It’s what he does.  He is no respecter of person or age or situation.  He will come after your family, your children and your spouse.  He will try to rob you of all that is whole and healthy.  Guard it!  Pay attention.  Don’t make it easy.  When you see the enemy, sound the alarm.  Otherwise, he will waltz in and take what he desires and you won’t even realize it until it’s gone.  Stay Alert!

#2 – Guard Dogs

James 4:7 – So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

Resist the devil.

I’ve got some good guard dogs at my house that are sweet as angels to my babies. But if you start to mess with those babies, then they just might eat you up. I’ve got some friends like that too. They are sweet….but Satan better not mess with their people. Those friends and I get together every Monday night to pray. They are my praying sisters, we are the rag tag girls.

About a year ago Satan came after our family and attacked us in a devastating way. I sent out an S.O.S. to my rag tag girls.  They were tenacious. They fought for me on their knees. They were like pit bulls and Satan was messing with their people.  They took a huge bite out of him and sent him packing.  The serpent was on the run.

Do you have some guard dogs like my girl friends? If not, you need some. Lord, give every reader some praying pit bulls that will guard against the enemy and stand in between them and Satan!

#3 – Weapons

Eph 6:10-18 – Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. 13Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 18Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

We are to fight against the Devil, but mostly we just run from the Devil.  In doing so, we leave our most prized possessions (matters of love, hope, faith, family) unprotected.  We are in a battle.  Not against people.  People in our home.  At our work.  At the church.  In our world.  We are in a battle against the mighty powers in this dark world.  We are in a spiritual battle.  And a spiritual battle can only be won with a spiritual force.

Let us not forget that the scriptures tell us that greater is the power in us (God’s Holy Spirit) than the power that is in the world (Satan).  Let us not forget that the power that lives in us is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. Let us not forget that at the name of Jesus every knee (including Satan) will bow.

Friends, God wants to fight for you.  He is the force that can defeat Satan.  Every. Single. Time.  Let Him fight for you.  Put on His weapons.  Let Him command.  Follow His lead.  Claim the victory.  He died on the cross so you could have it.  Scare the enemy away.