Fight the Lies with the Truth
I am a mother of 5 crazy, homeschooling children ages 10 & under, wife to an amazing man, and daughter of the King of the Universe!I enjoy reading, making my kids laugh, cooking, all things natural, learning to play guitar and dusting off my piano skills.One day I hope to run again, but until then I’m learning patience.
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There is nothing more precious to me than hearing our children praise God, sing his truth, and shout out to the devil that they will resist him and his lies!
Several weeks ago, I walked in on my eight year old daughter doing just this.
I had just purchased a new album by Ellie Holcomb called the Red Sea Road. I had the album on repeat. It’s so good. Anyway, I realized after about 15 minutes that, the same song kept repeating. I walked back into the school room, where the music was playing, and found my daughter standing in the middle of the room singing at the top of her longs:
I will fight the lies with the truth.
I will keep my eyes fixed on you.
I will sing the truth into the dark.
I will use my fighting words.
The lyrics to the song “Fighting Words” are powerful and the music is amazing. It is one you will want to play over and over again, just like my daughter does!
This song made me think about what fighting words we are teaching our children to use when the devil comes to attack.
I’ve taught them that Satan is tricky. He doesn’t always come in looking for a big fight, but sometimes slithers in looking to put our hearts on edge or even quietly convinces us of a something slightly different from God’s truth. Of course, the best way to fight Satan is with God’s word. And we have to know God’s word in order to fight properly. Christ taught us that!
When Jesus used Fighting Words
After Jesus was baptized and led into the dessert, Satan came to tempt him and destroy God’s plan. Interestingly enough, Satan tried to use Scripture to tempt Jesus away from God. (See, he’s a sneaky one!) But Satan misrepresent the Scriptures and Jesus quickly fought back with the truth of those Scriptures.
Luke 4:9-13
Satan: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone (Psalm 91:11-12).’Jesus answered, ‘It says: Do not put the Lord your God to the test (Deuteronomy 4:15).'”
What a battle over the truth! Did you see that knock out punch! Wham! Satan was laid out flat.
Passages like this, just confirm that we have to put God’s word in our heart, memorize it, chew on it and understand it so that we can fight the devil in the same way.
The Devil doesn’t discriminate based on age!
We need to plant the truth in our kids heart’s early, because the devil doesn’t wait until they are older to start misrepresenting God’s truth. His goal is to devour them while they are still weak. We have to protect them. (If you don’t have children, this still applies! Because you are still growing in your faith and have faith, the devil wants to make you ineffective. So these are great ideas for you too!)
This protection comes in many forms. It may mean there are certain T.V. shows that don’t need to be viewed, or certain songs that are better left unheard.
Repetition via song is the perfect way to teach little ones, so maybe instead of listening to the top 40 hits, we find a top 40 of our own. Like the top 40 memory verses put to song. There are a lot of great CDs out there that put Scripture to song like Seeds of Worship, any of the kids albums by Stephen Elkins, the Hidden in My Heart albums and so many more. The great part is this music is not just for kids, but adults will enjoy them too and can use it to strengthen their own fighting words.
Above and beyond Memorizing Scripture
Memorizing scripture is great but we see in the scenario between Jesus and Satan, that unless we understand the context of those verses, we could still get led astray. So we need to be in the Bible with our children. Wrestle with passages and help them to understand the meaning behind the verses they are memorizing.
It truly is amazing how kids can cut straight to the point in many things. We adults sometimes want to conform a verse to our way of thinking and when a child hears it, sometimes, they see it for what it really is! I love how God made kids innocent and without filters!
I personally have loved going through the Chronological Bible with our children. It’s helps us keep things in order and see how God’s plan unfolds. We do not try to cover the recommended passages daily but do bite size chunks so we discuss it as we go and they can really understand it. Children’s Bibles are good to a certain extent, but they leave out so many details and it is in the details that God is glorified. It is also in not knowing the details that the devil tries to trip us up. So I would highly encourage you, even if you have littles, to add reading straight from the Bible to your list. Without knowing it, they will not be able to fight properly.
Scripture to Fight With!
Since the Bible is God-breathed, it’s good to know. But here are several verses that we’ve been drilling into the hearts of our children and praying over them for a while:
Deuteronomy 36:1
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.
Psalm 139:14
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Prayer over your heart
Lord, you are holy and good and we trust you with all our hearts. You created us in our mothers wombs to do good works that you prepared in advance for us to do. We believe that and so when the devil tries to tell us that you don’t care about us, we mean nothing and have no value, or that we were a mistake, we can boldly speak these truths back to him and not allow him to plant false statements in our hearts.
We do not walk around with a spirit of timidity but stand courageously. We will come to you seeking strength instead of being terrified when Satan tries to frighten us because we know you will go with us and will never forsake us. We will allow your Holy Spirit to guide us and make our paths straight before us! May we delve into your word to seek truth to fight off Satan’s attacks and we will praise you all the way for providing a way out. In the One who teaches us to use your word to fight off the devil – Amen!
What are some of your “fighting verses?”
