The Battlefield Within
The heart is where Satan attacks—and where God gives strength
“Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.” — Proverbs 4:23.
The day you came to Christ was a day of victory. Do you remember it? For me, it was August 16, 1987. I can still see the riverbank, the faces of my parents and both sets of grandparents, fellow Christians, and the joy of coming up out of the water. That was the day everything changed.
My eternal address shifted from hell to heaven.
I turned from darkness to light.
I moved out from under Satan’s power and came under God’s power.
Jesus said, “There is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). That was your day of victory. But it was also the day the battle began.
The War Inside
The moment you put on Christ, your heart becomes a battlefield. As surely as there is a God who loves you, there is a devil who hates you. Jesus warned that the enemy works to “snatch away what was sown in [the] heart” (Matthew 13:19).
James explains how temptation works: “Each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15).
Notice where it all begins: not in the world around us, but in the desires of our own hearts. Sin always starts inside.
Guarding the Source
Proverbs 4:23 commands, “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.” Everything about who we are and how we live flows from the condition of our hearts.
Jesus made it clear: “From the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander. These are the things that defile a person” (Matthew 15:19–20).
If we don’t win the battle in our hearts, we won’t win anywhere else. That’s why this fight matters.
Not Just Defense—Offense
Too often, we think of Christianity only in defensive terms: avoiding temptation, resisting Satan, trying not to sin. However, God calls us to go on the offensive. Paul said, “Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
The war is real, but so is the victory God makes possible. With His Spirit, His Word, and His power, we can actually push back the enemy’s territory in our hearts and in our lives.
Tomorrow
Today, we’ve seen that the heart is where the battle is fought. But how does sin actually work its way into our hearts? Tomorrow, we’ll look at how sin attacks from three directions—our past, our present, and our future—and how to recognize its schemes before they take root.
