I get the feeling that others are like me and are prone to bouts of being exposed to Satan's accusations- where your old sins are dredged up, and you are filled with a sense of your unworthiness. Sometimes, I mistakenly just listen to these thoughts, without resisting them or fighting back. But last night, God led me, as he has done in the past, to first 'agree' with all of these statements about my sins, and like Zac Poonen says to call them the most foul name you can call them (e.g. anger as murder etc). Then also, I reminded Satan that these sins are 'under the blood of Christ'.
Praise God, last night, immediately after doing the above, He brought not only instant relief to my soul, but also a 'song in the night'. This portion of, 'It is Well with My Soul' flooded my heart, just as a sense of my sin had earlier :
\t"1.\tThough Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
\t2.\tMy sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!"
When I was a teenager and would face similar trials, I used to sing the Chorus from following song by Russ Taff, and would receive great comfort when I did this :
"When you're up against a struggle
That's shattered all your dreams
And your hopes been cruely crushed
By Satan's manifested schemes.
And you feel the urge within you
To submit to earthyly fears
Don't let the faith your standing in
Seem to disappear
CHORUS:
Praise the Lord.He will work for those who praise him
Praise the Lord. For our God inhabits praise.
Praise the Lord.And those chains that seem to bind you
Serve only to remind you.
As they fall powerless behind you.
When you praise him.
Satan is a liar and he wants to make us think
That we are paupers, when we know ourselves
We're children of the king.
So lift up the mighty shield of faith
For the battle must be won
Remember Jesus Christ has risen
So the works already done.
Chorus"
As the Bible says, Satan is the 'accuser of the brethren'. But we're also told that 'greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world'.
In Jesus,
John
p.s. When I was thinking of a title for this thread, the first thing that came to mind was 'Agreeing with Satan'…but for obvious reasons I thought better of it