If you are a true believer in Jesus Christ and have received His pardon for your sins, then Satan has lost his hold on your eternal destiny. However, that doesn’t prevent the evil one from doing all he can to prevent you from developing intimacy with God and fulfilling His plan for your life.
Communication is vital in building your relationship with Jesus. What God is telling you through His Word, the Bible, is a huge part of that process. So Satan does what he can to minimize the impact of God’s Word in your life.
Jesus used a parable to expose Satan’s manipulative schemes.
“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:18-23, NIV)
First of all, Satan wants to prevent you from understanding what God is saying to you. If there is no understanding, then God’s truth will not take root in your life. But if there is understanding, Satan uses trouble or persecution to make it difficult for you to continue applying God’s truth. Or, he may use the deceitfulness of wealth, worries and the pleasures of life to crowd out time and desire for follow through. But when God’s Word takes root in fertile ground, it produces abundant fruit within that life.
What kind of soil do you want to be for God? Do you value what God shows you in His Word and work diligently at applying it in your life? Without being anchored to God’s Truth, you will be overcome by waves of doubt, deception and distraction as you try to navigate your way through the ocean of life.
>>> Back to “Loving God Wholeheartedly”
Other Barriers to Loving God:
>>> Unconfessed Sin and an Unrepentant Heart
>>> Insufficient Vision
>>> Lack of Belief
>>> Preoccupied with Distractions
>>> Involvement in Idolatry