Vigilance

I've learned that battling Satan isn't really about fighting him. Fighting him is fairly easy. Many of his temptations can be overpowered by simply deciding to fight it. It's true that some of his temptations are difficult to resist, but in my opinion, the real fight has more to do with vigilance than strength of will. Satan, knowing that he is weaker than we are, uses stealth and trickery to try to weaken and defeat us before we even realize that he's there. Often, he's nothing more than a nagging thought in the back of our mind or a lingering negative emotion. Such things typically escape our notice, and are thus allowed to fester and poison us until Satan thinks we've been weakened enough to try to tempt directly. The trick, then, is to take notice of Satan's subtle influence and use our strength to our advantage, forcing him out of our minds before he can get a proper foothold. If we let him linger, he can weaken us, but if we oust him quickly enough, we can maintain our strength and our advantage in any spiritual conflict against him. The devil is sneaky, and he knows what strategies give him the best chance of winning, but his best chance lies in avoiding direct conflict until he has given himself the upper hand. We can rob him of that advantage by being vigilant and dealing with him directly as soon as he makes his first move. Don't let the devil sneak into your mind. Be watchful and force him out.