Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

I just started reading Thomas Brooks' "Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices", a book about how Satan temps us and ways we can recognize and fight against his tactics. I'll start sharing some of the things I read.

Device: To present the bait and hide the hook

Brooks paints the picture of Satan fishing for men. Satan does this by hiding sin and its effects with "bait". Brooks writes "to present the golden cup, and hide the poison; to present the sweet, the pleasure, and the profit that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin, and by hiding from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow the committing of sin." Like a fisherman using the correct bait for specific fish, Satan will use whatever bait each individual person is most prone to bite on. "Satan loves to sail with the wind, and to suit men's temptations to their conditions and inclinations." If you are prone to greed, Satan will put opportunities in front of you for great monetary gain. If you are prone to lust, Satan will be sure to surround you with all that your eyes desire. If gossip is your weakness, Satan will present you with the juciest piece of information that everyone would love to know. Satan is not all-knowing but he is very wise and will use whatever he can to get us to turn from Jesus and follow him.

Remedy (1): First, keep at the greatest distance from sin, and from playing with the golden bait that Satan holds forth to catch you.

Brooks writes "The best course to prevent falling into the pit is to keep at the greatest distance." Sounds like common sense. If you struggle with lust, stay away from the websites you know arouse your desire, stop watching the tv shows that do the same, cancel your subscription to Maxim, Stuff, and all other porn mags. If gossip is your fight, stop associating with the people you know who love to hear and dish out the latest information on everyone in the workplace. Don't play with fire or you will get burned. Proverbs 6:28 says "Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?" Follow this advice.

(2): To consider, that sin is but a bitter sweet.

"That seeming sweet that is sin will quicky vanish, and lasting shame, sorrow, horror, and terror will come in the room thereof." Sin may seem sweet at first but in the end turns out to be bitter, costing us time, money, relationships, health, and most importantly intimacy with Jesus. Brooks writes "When the asp stings a man, it doth first tickle him so as it makes him laugh, till the poison, by little and little, gets to the heart, and then it pains him more than it ever delighted him."

(3): Solemnly to consider, that sin will usher in the greatest and saddest losses that can be upon our souls.

"It will usher in the loss of that divine favour that is better than life, and the loss of that joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and the loss of that peace that passeth understanding, and the loss of those divine influenes by which the soul hath been refreshed, quickened, raised, strengthened, and gladded, and the loss of many outward desirable mercies, which otherwise the soul might have enjoyed."

(4): Seriously to consider, that sin is of a very deceitful and bewitching nature.

"Sin so bewitches the soul that it makes the soul call evil good and good evil; bitter sweet and sweet bitter, light darkness and darkness light; and a soul thus bewitched with sin will stand it out to the death at the the sword's point with God. So a man bewitched with sin had rather lose God, Christ, heaven, and his own soul than part with his sin. Oh, therefore, for ever take heed of playing with or nibbling at Satan's golden baits."