After a heartbreaking phone call from a friend who is struggling in her faith, I decided to post the following excerpt from my book Wilderness Skills for Women. I wrote this book during my own trial of faith, a season very similar to the one my friend is now facing. I know first hand how easy it is to believe Satan's lies when we hurt, but I also know the glorious victory available when we stand firm in God's truth.

The following chapter is entitled "Beware of Snakes." I hope it encourages anyone who is battling despair, fear or hopelessness; and teaches you how to stand victorious against the enemy. 

 Beware of Snakes

Few of us will ever forget the first time we watched the film The Passion of the Christ. The sheer magnitude of Christ’s sufferings left most viewers speechless and many breathless. In this film the familiar words of Scripture come crashing through our senses in living color. The prophetic words “by his stripes we are healed” take on a whole new meaning when watching the brutal scourging of Jesus. I recall sitting in the theater and begging “Jesus” to not get up when he had fallen at the whipping post. “Don’t stand up!” I repeated over and over again under my breath as I watched the Roman soldiers rip the skin from his back. “Please don’t stand up.” I thought if I could encourage him to stay down then his suffering would end.  Yet, he didn’t stay down. No, he stood and took more lashes and more lashes—for he knew that his brokenness would mean our wholeness. His death would mean our life.[i]

It stunned me how relieved I was when the crucifixion finally arrived, for with death my Savior’s suffering would finally end. Whoever thought death would be a welcomed sight? I’m pretty sure I held my breath for most of the movie.

Amazing sacrifice.

Amazing love.

Amazing grace.

As difficult as this movie was for me to watch, one scene in particular caused my heart to stand up and cheer. I absolutely loved the very first scene. The movie begins with a heavily burdened Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. There, in the garden, just hours before his arrest, Christ surrenders himself to the will of God the Father. From the following scene of The Passion of the Christ, we, the audience, are given a glimpse of the future victory and triumph that will come through his death. 

But first there is a conversation.

“Do you really believe that one man can bear the full burden of sin?” taunts the voice of Satan.

Jesus with his eyes heavenward and speaking only to the Father says, “I trust in you.”

And then, continuing his accusations, Satan says, “saving their souls is too costly.”

And Jesus says to the Father, “not my will but yours be done.”

What is this dialogue? Has Mel Gibson taken creative license? No. I think this scene perfectly encapsulates the entire cosmic drama of the crucifixion: God became man in order to redeem humanity from our slavery to sin and Satan. In doing so, Jesus must face the same temptations you and I face. So while Jesus agonizes about his impending death, Satan tempts him to abandon his mission to redeem the world's sins.

Let us never forget that Jesus is God in the flesh—fully God and fully man. So, there in the garden, it is Jesus the man who must make the choice to endure the pain and suffering for our sin. At Gethsemane, Jesus determines he will go forward with God’s plan and redeem humanity. He will be the perfect substitute and he will lay down his life to die in our place. But his surrender doesn’t come easily.

Can you fathom how tempting it must have been for him to think only of himself?

Meanwhile, another presence lurks in the garden that night—a snake. While Jesus is praying, a serpent, symbolizing Satan, slithers toward the Son of God to make a deadly strike.  But then, at the last second, with eyes fixed, Jesus rises to his feet and with one step crushes the head of the serpent – a step that defines his destiny. A historical moment. A prophetic moment. A moment that symbolizes the victory that is soon to come.  He will crush the head of the serpent. Satan will be defeated.

Girls, let me just take a commercial interlude right here and fill you in on a little fact about yours truly: I HATE SNAKES. Let me explain. I loathe snakes. Rats, I’m not a fan of either—given the whole plague thing and all—but I can handle them. Spiders, bring em’ on. But snakes, there is nothing I hate more than a snake. So when Jesus stood to his feet and stomped the serpent’s head I was elated.

But my elation had more to do with the fact that this serpent represents Satan. The deceiver, the accuser, the one whom Jesus calls the Father of Lies,  the one who is the cause of all anguish and suffering in this world. And since the beginning of time (back in a different garden called Eden), the serpent has become synonymous with Satan himself. But girls,

Gethsemane is not the first time Jesus has faced the serpent.

When Jesus began his earthly ministry, he, too, went into the wilderness. There, he was tested and tempted by Satan.  In Jesus’ wilderness season we learn an extremely important wilderness skill: Jesus shows us how to stand against the lies and deceptions of the Enemy.

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. 2 After He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry. 3 Then the tempter approached Him and said, "If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

    4 But He answered, "It is written:

    Man must not live on bread alone

    but on every word that comes

    from the mouth of God. "

5 Then the Devil took Him to the holy city, had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

                He will give His angels orders concerning you and,

                they will support you with their hands

                so that you will not strike

                your foot against a stone. "

                7 Jesus told him, "It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God. "

    8 Again, the Devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 And he said to Him, "I will give You all these things if You will fall down and worship me."

               10 Then Jesus told him, "Go away, Satan! For it is written:

                Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him. "

11 Then the Devil left Him, and immediately angels came and began to serve Him.                                                                                                                                                                                     Matthew 4:1-11(HCSB)

When Christ was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, each temptation came back to one thing: doubt. If you will notice, every time Satan speaks he begins his question with the word, “if.”

• If you are the Son of God then… (Satan wants Jesus to doubt his identity as the son of God.)
• If you will worship me…(Satan wants Jesus to doubt his redemptive mission and take a short-cut around the cross.)

Satan’s ploy was to use questions to tempt Jesus into sin (i.e. not trusting God the Father.) Doesn’t that ole snake do the same thing with you and me?

• If God really loved you then… (The snake wants you to doubt God’s heart for you.)
• If God is really good then he wouldn’t allow … (The snake wants you to doubt the character of God.)
• If you were really a Christian then… (The snake would love it if you would doubt your own salvation.)

Beware! Just as a snake disguises itself in tall brush and rocks, Satan deceives you and me with questions and accusations while in the wilderness. He is oh-so-subtle.

But in this interchange between Christ and Satan, we see a snapshot of how we should respond when encountering the snake in our trials. Each time, Jesus replied to Satan’s suggestive questions with three simple words, “It is written,” and then, Jesus spoke out loud a truth from Scripture in response to the lies of the Enemy. Finally, Jesus took authority over and commanded Satan to leave.

Isn’t this is an amazing wilderness skill? And it may very well be the best kept secret in all of Christianity. As believers in Jesus Christ, you and I can do the very same thing today. But where do we begin? We must start by taking inventory of our thoughts and making certain we aren’t listening to or believing the lies of the enemy. But, how does a girl know if she is being fed a lie? I’m so glad you asked.

True story: At times in my life, I’ve been what you would call a slave to fashion. Shopping can be a problem for me. Some girls emotionally eat…I emotionally spend. Jesus and I are working on this. I digress. Oops! This is not confession time. Where was I? Oh yes, believing a lie.

So a few years ago, I had a major fashion crush on this new pair of jeans. Problem A: my budget could not afford this specific pair of designer denim. Problem B: my budget could not afford this specific pair of designer denim. But girls, let me just say…I so loved these jeans. I would go visit them at the department store and just stare at them. Sometimes I would try them on and decide if I really needed to pay rent that month. Images of my homeless self in designer denim would send me out the door empty handed.

Then a friend of mine kindly informed me that I could probably buy the jeans on eBay at a much better price. Brilliant! I’m so in for a bargain. So now, empowered with shopping scoop, I surfed droves of denim on eBay until I discovered a pair that was identical to the ones I’d been eyeing in the store. And do you want to know the best part? They were brand new and cost only a fraction of the price.

I bought those bad boys faster than Nicole Ritchie changes sunglasses. But I did uncover one major bummer to online shopping. There is no instant-gratification-wear-the-jeans-tonight-thrill. So, I wait (and if you will recall, I love to wait) a few days for the UPS guy to deliver my new duds. Giddy, I rip open the package only to discover that I’d been fashion punked.

They were sooooooooooooo counterfeit!

I’m sure you are dying to know how I knew the jeans were as fake as a tan in January. It’s simple really. I knew the moment I touched the fabric that these babies were not the real thing. You wanna know how? Because I’d seen, touched, and tried-on the “real thing” enough times to know a fraud a mile away.

Here’s my point ladies: to spot a lie, you must know the truth.  

Remember…

Satan wants to deceive you about who you are.

Satan wants to deceive you about God’s character.

Satan wants to deceive you about God’s plan and purpose for your life.

And when in a wilderness season: i.e. hurting, lonely, sad, depressed—you and I make one easy target for his lies. Please note: this snake is sneaky.  Satan watched and waited and only when Jesus became hungry for food did the enemy unleash his taunts and temptations.

Hunger is defined by my friend Mr. Webster as “a strong or compelling desire or craving.”  Satan waited until Jesus was physically hungry for food, and then, it was that specific desire that the enemy zeroed in on when tempting Jesus to not trust his Heavenly Father.

A woman in a wilderness can “hunger” for so many things that make her prime for temptation, such as love, affection, attention, affirmation, relief from stress, or even an escape from pain. I tell you this as a warning: carefully consider what you are thinking about.  If you are going through a tough time and find yourself experiencing tormenting thoughts or strong temptations, you very well may be dealing with a snake in the grass.

            My friend Amy told me about the wilderness season she walked through following her painful divorce. When she married right after college, she expected it would be forever—a.k.a. ‘til death do us part. Yet weeks into the marriage, her fairytale became a nightmare as her “prince charming” husband became both physically and verbally abusive.

            Even with biblical grounds for divorce, Amy candidly admits that Satan took full advantage of her pain and her hunger for love to heap lies and accusations on her. Here are a few lies Amy heard in her wilderness:

• God will never forgive you.
• You are used goods now. You might as well give yourself away to any guy who comes along.
• A “real” Christian man would never marry a girl like you
• Why don’t you numb your pain with alcohol and male attention?

It took time for Amy to learn to silence Satan with the Word of God and to take her rightful authority as a redeemed girl and tell him to “be gone.”  Through Bible study and involvement with other Christian women, she has learned this skill. Today, she is a wonderful example to many that Satan is a big-fat-liar. Amy not only actively serves in her church discipling young women, but is also married to one of the godliest men I know. Amy’s testimony is one of victory because she made the decision to stop believing Satan’s lies and to start standing in God’s truth.

This wilderness skill is so huge! Our thoughts must be based upon truth, or we will be in big trouble. The reason? Our thoughts lead to our emotions, and our emotions lead to our actions. And when we are in the wilderness (i.e. rejection, loss, despair, etc.), it doesn’t take much to send a girl’s emotional state of being into full-blown-melt-down. We have to be so careful to not  entertain the lies of the enemy and allow him to dictate our emotions and our actions. Determine, especially in wilderness seasons, to stand in truth.

I know someone reading this may be thinking, “Hold it right there missy, what exactly is truth?”  Girls, there is a definitive answer to this infamous question. The word truth means “that which has fidelity (conformity) to the original.” Meaning? There is a standard. Given that the word itself implies there is a measurement of what is “true,” then it only makes sense that truth is not relative.

Then what is truth? God’s word is truth. Jesus said in his prayer for you and me before his death on the cross, “Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.” (John 17:17 Amplified Bible) Jesus teaches us that the Bible, God’s very word is the truth. So what’s my point? If my thoughts about myself or about my God differ with what God has spoken, then I am believing a lie. Remember my denim debacle? I recognized a fraud only because I knew the real thing.

Jesus also gives us a warning about the snake, Satan, when he cautions, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10 NIV) Satan has an agenda and his mode of operation has not changed—he operates in lies. But girls, listen carefully—the snake is defeated! Jesus defanged the serpent at the cross. All he can do is lie to us. We must choose whether we will listen to his lies or to God’s truth.

Looking back over my recent wilderness season, I recognize that so many of my issues came down to where I allowed my thoughts to dwell. The enemy desired not only to steal my worship, but also to kill my joy and destroy my faith. I’ve found the same to be true for every woman I’ve interviewed in writing this book. Countless women shared their wilderness tales with me, and the common denominator in all of them was the torment of lies and accusations each woman endured.  

So, what’s a girl to do? We must do what Christ modeled for us in the wilderness. Resist Satan and stand firm in the truth of God’s word.  Just as it says in James 4:7: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (NIV)

Submit—turn to God in prayer and claim his truth. I suggest you find specific scripture passages that deal with the particular lies (temptations, questions, accusations) that torment you.

            Resist—say “no” to the lies and tell Satan to “go away in the name of Jesus.”

            No lie. Just last night I put this skill into practice. I was driving to a dinner party when I felt those “poor me” thoughts forming. I listened to a few and realized if I didn’t nip them in the bud, I would be quite the dud at dinner.  So I began responding to the negative thoughts (i.e. lies) with God’s word. For each lie I heard, I spoke a scripture out loud. Finally, as I was pulling up to the valet I said, “Satan, go away in the name of Jesus.” And guess what? It turns out that Jesus proves one excellent wilderness guide. Though the snake was indeed dead, I opted for something else for dinner. No “skinning and gutting” for this girl.

P.S: the pecan crusted chicken and molten chocolate cake were oh-so-fabulous!