Four Satanic Tactics and How to Combat Them

One last blog post from Stake Conference before I move on to some other topics that have been building up in my "Blog About" list. This one will focus on a large portion of Elder Lawrence's talk, discussing four satanic tactics and how to combat them.

The first tactic Elder Lawrence listed was the most obvious: Direct temptation. Just as the Holy Ghost can put ideas and suggestions into our minds, the adversary has that same ability. He can put thoughts into our minds, and there isn't much we can do to prevent that. However, there is a lot we can do once the temptation enters our minds and we recognise it as such.

For starters, we could simply ignore it. The devil can give us ideas, but we don't have to act on them. Ignoring those temptations is one way to show that they have no power over us. However, merely ignoring the temptations may not be a good idea. Over time, Satan's suggestions may begin to seem reasonable, or at least annoy us to the point where we give in and try things his way.

A better way to deal with these temptations is to put our feet down. In a famous General Conference talk, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said:

Like thieves in the night, unwelcome thoughts can and do seek entrance to our minds. But we don’t have to throw open the door, serve them tea and crumpets, and then tell them where the silverware is kept! (You shouldn’t be serving tea anyway.) Throw the rascals out!

Elder Holland suggested that we could throw evil thoughts out by replacing them with thoughts of loved ones. Elder Lawrence and others suggested quoting scriptures or singing hymns. Whatever you turn to, you can force Satan's direct temptations out of your mind by thinking about other things.

The second tactic Elder Lawrence listed was deception. Satan often tries to lie to us to tell us that there's something wrong with us or that there's nothing wrong with what he's tempting us to do. He tries to trick us into giving up the fight because he knows that if we fight him, we will win.

Sometimes, we can see through his lies by using logic, but we also have the scriptures and the Holy Ghost to help us. Satan's lies can be convincing, but the Holy Ghost can help us see the truth.

The third tactic Satan uses is contention. He knows that if he can keep us busy fighting each other, we'll be too busy to fight him. He also knows that contention drives the Spirit away, and the Spirit is our most powerful weapon against him. By getting us to fight with each other, or even with ourselves, Satan tries to distance us from those who love us and would help us, and then he attacks us more directly when we're alone.

One way to counter this is to make sure we're never alone. The Holy Ghost can be our constant companion, and He, too, has the ability to influence our thoughts and feelings. When we feel contentious, we can pray for His influence to help us calm down. He can also help us to know what to say or do to help heal the rifts we may have formed between us and our loved ones. Being united through the Spirit can keep us together, even when the devil is trying to drive us apart.

Finally, Satan tries to discourage us into giving up. This seems silly after discussing the many ways we can counter Satan's strategies and the fact that he can only defeat us if we give up the fight, but the temptation to give up can be surprisingly strong. We are only human beings, and we humans have several debilitating limitations. It's easy to consider something a monumental task and give up on it. The prospect of ever becoming perfect seems impractical. The need to keep all the commandments is overwhelming. When we think of how much growth we'll have to do to even begin to approach becoming like God, it's easy to become discouraged.

As with the previous tactic, the way to overcome this tactic is to pray. The reason our eternal goals seem overwhelming is because we try to put them in a temporal context. We picture a goal that will take multiple centuries to accomplish and we think it'll never happen because we only have a little less than a hundred years to work with, but God knows we have a lot more time on our hands than that. He can give us a more eternal perspective and remind us that we actually are making progress, even if our progress is too subtle or gradual for us to see. God knows that we can succeed in this grand endeavour, no matter what the father of lies tells us, and the assurance God gives us can give us the encouragement we need to keep fighting.

These probably aren't the only ways Satan tries to work against us, and they certainly aren't the only ways we can work against him. The point of this message wasn't to give a comprehensive list of battle strategies, but rather to show that for every way Satan tries to defeat us, there's a way we can defeat him instead, and often, the answer is to turn prayerfully toward the scriptures and the Spirit. If that doesn't solve the problem outright, it can at least point us toward the true solution to the problem. For every problem Satan causes, God has an answer. Satan tries many different ways to destroy us, but no matter what he does, we will always have a way to defeat him.