Satan’s Strategy for Your Life #23: Incited
“Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.”—1 Chronicles 21:1
One of the greatest ways of motivating a man is to insult his pride. Our society today uses pride as a motivation, and it is one of the most subtle ways of reaching a child of God, for it makes one’s successes into a means of boasting. And even godly people can be incited to believe that they are the reason good things are happening. Pride causes one to make an idol of oneself and one’s accomplishments, and turns one from trusting in God to trusting in self.
Satan incited the great servant of God, David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22), to turn from trusting in the Lord his God to trusting in his own military strength. David is a true rags to riches story. He was the lowly shepherd boy who became king of Israel. He was the sweet psalmist, and the one who had defeated Goliath; he was the great military general, warrior-poet, a great musician, and the previous King’s son-in-law. He was the one with whom God had established an everlasting covenant (1 Chronicles 17:10-14). If anyone had a reason to be proud, it would be David. Satan appealed to his pride by inciting him to number his army. By numbering his army he could boast about its size, prowess and success. But once David numbered the army, “God was displeased” (1 Chronicles 21:7) and “struck Israel.” God gave David one of three options to choose from: (1) eight years of famine, (2) three months of devastation by his enemies, or (3) three days of the sword of the Lord. David chose the third, which resulted in the death of 70,000 men (1 Chronicles 21:14).
As believers we must be on guard against pride. Pride may seem harmless, but as we see in the case of David, it brought about the death of several tens of thousands. We must repent of any notion that we are who we are because of anything we have done or caused. God has made us what we are, and any abilities we may possess, or accomplishments achieved, are only from His grace at work within us. As the Scripture says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord”—1 Corinthians 1:3.
What areas of pride can the devil use against us right now? How might he get us to look at ourselves in a greater way than is permissible? What idols are we holding onto? Do we have an idol of success? Power? Let us unmask the idols that tempt us to boast in anything else rather than in the Lord God. Let our idols be exposed and let us be naked before the Lord, finding our identity in Him and in Him alone rather than any person or thing. And once we do, Satan will have to seek another tactic to employ against us, because “the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom”—2 Timothy 4:18. Amen.
One of the greatest ways of motivating a man is to insult his pride. Our society today uses pride as a motivation, and it is one of the most subtle ways of reaching a child of God, for it makes one’s successes into a means of boasting. And even godly people can be incited to believe that they are the reason good things are happening. Pride causes one to make an idol of oneself and one’s accomplishments, and turns one from trusting in God to trusting in self.
Satan incited the great servant of God, David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22), to turn from trusting in the Lord his God to trusting in his own military strength. David is a true rags to riches story. He was the lowly shepherd boy who became king of Israel. He was the sweet psalmist, and the one who had defeated Goliath; he was the great military general, warrior-poet, a great musician, and the previous King’s son-in-law. He was the one with whom God had established an everlasting covenant (1 Chronicles 17:10-14). If anyone had a reason to be proud, it would be David. Satan appealed to his pride by inciting him to number his army. By numbering his army he could boast about its size, prowess and success. But once David numbered the army, “God was displeased” (1 Chronicles 21:7) and “struck Israel.” God gave David one of three options to choose from: (1) eight years of famine, (2) three months of devastation by his enemies, or (3) three days of the sword of the Lord. David chose the third, which resulted in the death of 70,000 men (1 Chronicles 21:14).
As believers we must be on guard against pride. Pride may seem harmless, but as we see in the case of David, it brought about the death of several tens of thousands. We must repent of any notion that we are who we are because of anything we have done or caused. God has made us what we are, and any abilities we may possess, or accomplishments achieved, are only from His grace at work within us. As the Scripture says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord”—1 Corinthians 1:3.
What areas of pride can the devil use against us right now? How might he get us to look at ourselves in a greater way than is permissible? What idols are we holding onto? Do we have an idol of success? Power? Let us unmask the idols that tempt us to boast in anything else rather than in the Lord God. Let our idols be exposed and let us be naked before the Lord, finding our identity in Him and in Him alone rather than any person or thing. And once we do, Satan will have to seek another tactic to employ against us, because “the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom”—2 Timothy 4:18. Amen.
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