The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." - John 10:10
The enemy doesn't do anything but steal, kill, and destroy us, and he does this in every way that he can. One of the ways he does this is through harassing us.
To harass means "to make repeated small-scale attacks on an enemy." The devil sees us as enemies if we are in Christ, and one of the ways he will try to steal our joy, kill our passion for Christ, and destroy our very lives by harassing us on a daily moment-by-moment basis.
Oh really?
Many of us don't believe that small hiccups and irritating moments can be caused by the enemy, because we often think of the enemy's work as limited to big ticket temptations. If the latter was true, then perhaps we never understood the very first temptation that happened to man:
"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate." (Genesis 3:6)
The serpent used a simple fruit as the means to tempt man to commit sin. If the devil could use a fruit to tempt mankind to commit sin, he can very much use anything that "looks good," "pleasant," or "desirable" to tempt anybody to commit sin.
And that includes harassing us.
When harassment comes
The enemy harasses us to steal our joy, kill our focus on Christ, and destroy our very lives. When such attacks come, we normally end up getting angry and frustrated, and our focus is taken away from what we're supposed to be focusing on.
Here are some things we should do to deal with harassments when they come.
1) Recognize what the harassment really is
First, we've got to recognize what the harassment is: an attack from the enemy. We should resist all of it!
James 4:7 tells us that instead of giving in to temptation, we should "submit to God," and then we must "Resist the devil and he will flee" from us. We have to keep submitting to God and resisting the enemy until he leaves us alone.
2) Cast our cares on God
Next, we must quickly cast our concerns to the Lord. Psalm 55:22 tells us,
"Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved."
This is the way we resist the enemy. We must not try to resist him in the flesh. The way we resist him is by submitting to God by prayer and obeying the Word. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us,
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
3) Know what harasses you
After submitting to God, resisting the devil, and after experiencing the peace of God, we should all then take a closer look at what happened to us. We should evaluate ourselves and ask the hard questions:
- What irritated me?
- How was I irritated?
- How did it affect me?
- What did it make me think, say, or do?
We need to know what harasses us so that we can develop a defense for it. We've got to wise up and learn to catch the little things that bother and affect us badly. Song of Solomon 2:15 tells us,
"Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes."
We must always remember that the endpoint of all the harassment is to cause us to sin and distance ourselves from God. We must guard against all possible harassments so as to protect our relationship with God.
