Answering Satan's Voice of Insecurity

Mike Hosey, Elder

The voice of insecurity is one of Satan’s most powerful weapons. He likes to whisper (and sometimes shout) in our ear that we are not good enough, or that we are not loved, or that we are not strong enough to complete the task before us.  He likes to remind us that we are sinners, and then portray to us our condition as hopeless. He has a special love of stirring up secret internal strife. For instance, anytime that he can get us to compare ourselves to our neighbors, and then play on the insecurity that we don’t measure up to them, he will do so. After all, everyone is gifted differently, and invariably our neighbors are going to be quite good in some areas where we aren’t. He capitalizes on this fact by either inflating us with conceit, or more often, by degrading us with insecurity. Frequently, he does both at the same time.

The craftiest part of this tactic is that he uses the truth to create a nearly imperceptible lie.  He wants us to place our confidence in our own fleshly abilities – a task bound to create anxiety. In order to produce this anxiety, he tells us the truth.  You don’t measure up. You are, in fact, a sinner.  And your condition is, indeed, completely hopeless . . . unless you have God.  Satan knows that any man worth his salt at some point will recognize his own weaknesses, because with demonic bent, he takes great pains to point them out to him.  And when he doesn’t take those pains, a host of worldly men do. This is why it is so easy for him to lead a man to the stressful, anxious, and paralyzing state of insecurity. Tell him just part of the truth, and then vigorously keep from him the greater and more important part of that truth. A world that doesn’t know God will do the rest.

But when God is present, or the man places his confidence in God and His purposes, rather than in his own abilities, then insecurities are vanquished, crushed, or melted away by the very glory of God. God tells us that all the things He has purposed for us to do are possible through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:13, Matthew 19:26).

So the next time Satan whispers to you that you are not strong enough, or that you are not loved, you tell him that God is your strength and refuge, and that His love endures forever (Psalm 46:1 ESV; Psalm 136:1 ESV).