We have three enemies that Christians must continually battle. They are lusts of the body, Satan the deceiver and the world’s temptations. Anytime one of these three can cause you to yield and if you do, it may cause discouragement and a lack of hope. We are living at a time when it is easy to become discouraged and hopeless about almost everything that is happening.

We should know that God allows problems in our lives to build character, trust and patience. We may forget that Satan uses others to deceive and discourage us. We are told that Satan’s final plan is to attack and deceive our minds, pervert our morals and demoralize our armed forces which we are witnessing. We must realize Satan’s army is out to destroy the United States, Christianity and the church as well as every Christian. Can you not see Satan’s plan of attack today?

Revelations 13:5 – 8 – “Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. And he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months. And he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering his name and his dwelling—that is, those who dwell in heaven. And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life before the world was made—the Book that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered.”

No matter how corrupt or how much he lies and deceives nor how much he attacks Christians and the church, there will be a huge number of followers believing everything he says. He can do no wrong because of his charismatic personality and ability as an orator. He will perform miracles with supernatural powers.

Not only is Satan our enemy but we must realize that with salvation we become a new person. However, we still have to fight the lusts of the body. When we fail, we can allow discouragement to take over.

1 John 1:15-17 -“Do not love the world, or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

The pride of life is allowing pride and arrogance to become sinful. It can be a temptation to want acceptance, fame, power to be somebody important. It can also be a pride that we don’t need God. I think it is best describe as lacking humility. It can be thinking we are more important than we really are. We see it in persons who tear down another verbally.

We as Americans believe that we have been blessed so much that we forget that it was God Who provided it. Life is all about ourselves and we take the credit for all of the material things we have accumulated. We take pride in who we are, what we have and what we have accomplished without giving God any credit. This is why Scripture warns us about the Pride of Life.

II Timothy 3:1 – 5 – “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”

There are many anti-God individuals and groups in politics, most universities and much of the media. They want the church to accept the world’s culture. They want Christians to become politically correct doers. They are becoming well organized and lobby our politicians. They are having tremendous influence on our judicial system. The ways of the world can be an enemy to a Christian. Just because everyone is doing it, does not make it right morally.

With the three enemies trying to defeat us because we are Christians, we must not become discouraged. Many individuals in the Bible seemed to have problems with being discouraged. We learned that discouragement takes away hope. Without hope it is easy to not trust in the promises Christ made to Christians. Many times we have a tendency to take our focus off of Christ and focus only on the problems and conflicts that we encounter.
I John 4:4 – “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

We must never forget the above Scripture. The Holy Spirit is in us and is sufficient to defeat all enemies that might tempt us. Remember, as long as we have hope and can focus on Christ we are able to overcome any discouragement. NEVER LOSE HOPE IN CHRIST’S PROMISES!