Every true work of God has had its bitter enemies - not only outside, but also inside - just as in the days of Nehemiah.

sin sneaks up on us over time.

Brian and Kara look a lot like us. Like them, we forget that it is in the little moments that spiritual battles are lost and won.

As J. C. Ryle said, "A true Christian is one who has not only peace of conscience, but war within." 5 We are united to Christ for a purpose: "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight" (Eph. 1:4). Our new life in Christ is just that: new life. A glorious fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil is at its heart and one of the clearest signs of our union with him.

The lies that capture us as Christians usually seem to fit well within the borders of our Christianity.

You have a dreamer's look; you must not dream. It is only sick people who dream.

I can resist anything but temptation

We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to. Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!

If we are to know the abundant provision of God's unlimited resources, we must also understand how Satan works to rob us of that experience. He does so by deceit.

Satan's efforts to defeat God's purposes for humankind. This is the basic idea behind all temptation: God is presented as depriving us by his commands of what is good.

If we think we are facing an irresistible cosmic force of evil, it will invariably lead to giving in and giving up—usually with very little resistance. If you can convince yourself that you are helpless, you can then stop struggling and just "let it happen." That will seem a great relief—for a while. You can once more be a normal human being. But then you will have to deal with the consequences. And for normal human beings those are very severe.

The only way the devil can hurt God is through humans, and so he focuses upon us. His strategy is to try to frustrate God's purpose for humanity