Why do I lose my motivation in living for Christ? These five words tell it all.

The world that you and I pass through daily is fraught with spiritual challenges. In our mundane day-to-day existence, it’s easy to forget that. A friend of mine shared recently that there are five D’s that Satan uses to attack us. The five words are: doubt, discouragement, diversion, defeat and delay.  Here they are with brief definitions, and  a few of my insights.

Doubt – you question God’s Word and God’s goodness.

You’re not alone when you doubt from time to time. It can be hard not to doubt when your circumstances are difficult. But part of God being faithful, means that sometimes we must wait to see his goodness.  And his goodness is not determined by the brevity or length of time we must wait.  Rather, his goodness is inherent in his character. Like the father in Mark 9, sometimes we’ll just need to cry out, “I do believe, help my unbelief.”

Discouragement – you look at your problems rather that at God’s strength.

Whether your problems are internal or external, they can still feel all-consuming. In the Old Testament, one of God’s names was Jehovah Chezeq. It means the Lord is my strength, and that strength, according to the prophet Isaiah, is an everlasting strength (Is. 26:4). When we are discouraged in our weakness, we look to the everlasting strength of the Lord.

Diversion – you focus on the wrong things and begin to see them as attractive.  As you dwell upon them, you end up desiring the wrong things more than the right things.

Most of us are easily distracted. We start a project, but then we’re interrupted.  While the interruption is challenging, the real danger occurs when we begin to allow our mind to think and dwell upon the things that draw us away from the Lord. Each of us has an internal lawyer that will argue for what we think will satisfy our desires, while at the same time justify our sinful thoughts and actions. Dwell on the right things, not the wrong ones.

Defeat – you’ve tried before and failed. Rather than fail again, you choose not to try. None of us like to fail. Professional athletes aren’t rewarded for losing, they’re traded. Often defeat can have a paralyzing effect on a decision to go forward. UCLA’s famous coach, John Wooden, was fond of saying, “

If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.

For the Christian, each defeat is an opportunity to walk in humility, and reach for God’s strength the next time.

Delay – you put off doing something, and it never gets done. When I first began writing, a friend of mine told me the story of a fellow pastor who had a great idea for a book, but was always saying, “I’ll get to that one day.” A decade had passed since their first meeting, and my friend commented that the minister was still talking about what he would write one day. My friend asked me, “Do you think he’ll ever do it?” Then he added, “Whatever God is laying on your heart to do, do it today, don’t delay.” I’m forever grateful for his encouragement.

Five D’s that Satan consistently reaches for in his arsenal: doubt, discouragement, diversion, defeat, and delay. But, when we reach for the Lord and his strength, we will find that we are not victims of the 5 D’s, we are victorious over them.

For additional resources by this author visit biblicalstrategies.com.

For an excellent small group study for men by this author visit 4Mtraining.com