How does the weak make war? I’m about to find out. It came as a revelation to me about six weeks ago that I had begun believing lies. I had grown sour over my perceptions, a friend came to me and tried to dig beneath the sourness in search of a root, and I began to regurgitate the lies to him. I didn’t even believe them as I said them, but that was how I was feeling. It all starts so subtly, I didn’t even realize that I had taken the bait until the words came out of my mouth that I couldn’t even trust myself! It is terrible advice to follow your heart, trust your feelings, and believe in yourself. It is when we start doing these things that we open the gates and leave ourselves defenseless. This is how the heart works, and we are given an accurate diagnosis of it in Jeremiah 17:9 ESV
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Taking advantage of my already dumb and dull weakness, Satan is an accuser. He is not so much one to play the boogieman ready to drag me into the closet and poke my bottom with a pitchfork, but that sly fox is a whisperer, sowing doubt, worry, and discontent. Hear me loud and clear: the devil didn’t make me do it. I am responsible for myself, my actions, and my believing of lies. If the Christian life is a walk, then Satan definitely tells us there is an easier path, a lighter load, and it won’t be of any harm to look back.
So what is to be done about it? Clearly I am too blind to spot the gaping holes in my armor, as I had succumbed so fully to the lies that I was believing. Disoriented, distrusting of myself, I need True North to find my way out of the tangled thickets of deceit.
It is with this, I need help. I have nearly abandoned all personal study of Scripture, pursuit of Christ, and defense of myself. I have no strength of my own to fight with, because my own strength has been proven futile. Many times, I lack the resolve to utter even a weak prayer. It came to mind to begin a Psalm supported book study of Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, written in the 1600’s by a Puritan by the name of Thomas Brooks. The book is exactly what it sounds like, and as Satan means to work in the shadows, it seeks to drag him and his tactics out into the light so the believer might be able, by the grace of God and power of the Holy Spirit, to make war against him.
Precious Remedies has twelve sections on the Table of Contents, and I have divided those twelve sections up to be accompanied by a Psalm (some of my selection, and some of pastoral suggestion as I presented this reading plan) for each reading. So, if I read for 30 second or I read for 10 minutes, I’ll read the accompanying Psalm in an effort to store up God’s word in my heart that I might not sin against him (Psalm 119:11).
The Plan:
(Psalm 1)
1. The Epistle Directory
2. A Word to the Reader
3. Introduction
4. The Proof of the Point
(Psalm 23)
5. Satan’s Devices to Draw the Soul to Sin
(Psalm 42)
6. Satan’s Devices to Keep Souls From Holy Duties
(Psalm 50)
7. Satan’s Devices to Keep Saints in Sad Condition
(Psalm 91)
8. Satan’s Devices to Destroy & Ensnare
(Psalm 145)
9. Five More of Satan’s Devices
10. Seven Characteristics of False Teachers
(Psalm 150)
11. Six Propositions Concerning Satan and His Devices
12. Conclusion: Ten Special Helps and Rules
If you are one who struggles with believing lies and want to link arms with me, pray with me, trust in God with me, or if you just simply want to see what in the world it is I’m reading, you can download a free PDF of Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices and YouVersion offers a free Bible for your phone, tablet, and computer. I use the English Standard Version primarily.
I pray that the Holy Spirit would be my power against Satan’s devices, and that in that power I might make war against the devil and his accusations.
