If I Were Your Enemy: Top 10 Favorite Strategies (Excerpts from “Fervent” by Priscilla Shirer)
1.Your Passion – Getting It Back When It’s Gone
If I Were Your Enemy, I’d seek to dim your passion, dull your interest in spiritual things, dampen your belief in God’s ability and His personal concern for you, and convince you that the hope you’ve lost is never coming back – and was probably just a lie to begin with.
2. Your Focus – Fighting The Real Enemy
If I were your enemy, I’d disguise myself and manipulate your perspectives so that you’d focus on the wrong culprit – your husband, your friend, your hurt, your finances, anything or anyone except me. Because when you zero in on the most convenient, obvious places to strike back against your problems, you get the impression you are fighting for something. Even though all you’re really doing is just … fighting. For nothing.
3. Your Identity – Remembering Who You Are
If I were your enemy, I’d devalue your strength and magnify your insecurities until they dominate how you see your self, disabling and disarming you from fighting back, from being free, from being who God has created you to be. I’d work hard to ensure that you never realize what God has given you so you’ll doubt the power of God within you.
4. Your Family- Fortifying The Lives of Those You Love
If I were your enemy, I’d seek to disintegrate your family and destroy every member of it. I’d want to tear away at your trust and unity and turn everyone’s love inward on themselves. I would make sure your family didn’t look anything like it’s supposed to. Because then people would look at your Christian marriage , your Christian kids, and see you’re no different, no stronger than anybody else – that God, underneath it all, doesn’t change anything.
5. Your Past – Ending the Reign of Guilt, Shame and Regret
If I were your Enemy, I’d constantly remind you of your past mistakes and poor choices. I’d want to keep you burdened by shame and guilt, in hopes that you will feel incapacitated by your many failings and see no point in even trying again. I’d work to convince you that you’ve had your chance and blown it – that your God may be able to forgive some people for some things, but not you … not for this.
6. Your Fears – Confronting Your Worries, Claiming Your Calling
If I were your enemy, I’d magnify your fears, making them appear insurmountable intimidating you with enough worries until avoiding them becomes your driving motivation. I would use anxiety to cripple you, to paralyze you, leaving you indecisive, clinging to safety and sameness, always on the defensive because of what might happen. When you hear the word faith, all I’d want you to hear is “unnecessary risk.”
7. Your Purity – Staying Strong In Your Most Susceptible Places
If I were your enemy, I’d tempt you toward certain sins, making you believe they are basically (even biologically) unavoidable. I’d study your tendencies and proclivities till I learned the precise conditions that make you the most likely to indulge them. And then I’d strike right there. Again and again. Wear you down. Because if I can’t separate you from God forever, I can at least set you at odds with Him for the time being.
8. Your Pressures – Reclaiming Peace, Rest, and Contentment
If I were your enemy, I’d make everything seem urgent, as if it’s all yours to handle. I’d bog down your calendar with so many expectations you couldn’t tell the difference between what’s important and what’s not. Going and doing, guilty for ever saying no, trying to control it all, but just being controlled by it all instead … If I could keep you busy enough, you’d be too overwhelmed to even realize how much work you’re actually saving me.
9. The Hurts – Turning Bitterness To Forgiveness
If I were your enemy, I’d use every opportunity to bring old wounds to mind, as well as the people, events, and circumstances that caused them. I’d try to ensure that your heart was hardened with anger and bitterness. Shackled through unforgiveness.
10. Your Relationships – Uniting In A Common Cause
If I were your enemy, I’d work to create division between you and other Christians, between groups of Christians, anyone with the potential for uniting in battle against me and my plans. I’d keep you operating individually, not seeing your need for the church or tying yourself too closely to its mission. Strength in numbers and unity of purpose … I would not allow things like these to go unchecked.