Do Not Give the Devil a Foothold

This past Lenten season, I decided to embark on the 21-day The Daniel Fast (www.thedanielfast.com, Susan Gregory). When I “give up” a single item (coffee), I find ways to compensate (tea). Or I choose a sacrifice (chocolate) that can be accomplished without drawing on Christ. I needed something that would invade my whole day, every part of my waking and lying down. The Daniel Fast does that.

The Daniel Fast is a commitment to give up all sugar (even as an ingredient), all processed foods (absolutely nothing with preservatives or ingredients you can’t pronounce), all dairy, all meat, all beverages except water (yep, even coffee), and all foods that contain yeast. It’s more than Paleo, not at all gluten free, and something akin to vegan on steroids.

You cannot enter into the Daniel Fast unprepared. Planning ahead is the only way to succeed, and I knew what I was getting into. I had done this fast before. I was about 17 days into it when I gave the devil a foothold.

My mom had been hospitalized the day before. I ate breakfast at home and lunch according to the fast at the hospital bistro, but I didn’t bring snacks. By 5:00 p.m. I was quite hungry.

My husband stopped by the hospital after his own long day, and he was hungry too. The only thing on our minds was to eat—and soon. My husband stopped on his way home and picked up Chinese food, remembering my favorite dish: Happy Family.

Nothing about Chinese food aligns with the Daniel Fast. In the moment, having not planned a quick, fast-friendly dinner, I let my guard down. I took the easy option and inhaled my Happy Family.

The sacrificial nature of the fast is to embrace bending our fleshly desires over to Christ. For seventeen days I had grappled with it. As I submitted every food decision to honor God through the fast, I experienced intimate communion with him and a fellowship I had been missing. Then the Chinese food incident happened. I wrestled with the idea of abandoning the fast altogether. After all, I’d already fallen. Already failed. I couldn’t even commit for twenty-one days. What kind of Christian am I? I may as well go ahead and have a cup of coffee.

Instead of acting on that desire, I decided to first read my devotional for the day:

“Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:12–14 NIV).

Through these life-giving words, grace breathed into my weakness and arrested the temptation to keep on “failing.” I committed to 21 days. I had four more days to go. Why should I offer those days over to my enemy? Why should I let the voice of failure be the last thing I heard?

I can’t say I heard God say, No, don’t have any coffee. But through his Word, I recognized the choice before me. To whom will I yield?

A passage in Ephesians implores us not to sin in our anger and give the devil a foothold. This idea caught my attention. I think Paul specifically called out anger because anger is a strong, negative emotion that’s hard to control. But we can give Satan a foothold in other ways. When I broke my fast, I gave him one that allowed him to tempt me to give up. I messed up once—it’s over.

 A foothold means we give our enemy a place to insert himself into our situations. It’s an opening that invites him to speak lies of discouragement, doubt, and division into our lives. Any compromise we make that invites us to keep on compromising a life that honors Christ is a foothold. Any “failure” we feel we have made that invites guilt, shame, or condemnation is a foothold. Anything that causes us to say I may as well quit; I’m not worthy is a foothold.

Just like I needed to plan ahead to remain strong in Christ through my fast, planning ahead and being prepared will help us guard against giving up those footholds. But when we do react out of weakness and we find ourselves contemplating offering a part of our live to our enemy in defeat, we must claim these words: Sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

 Choose today. Do not give the devil a foothold.

Denise Roberts is a wife, mom, and joyful soon to be mother-in-law. She loves sharing a good cup of coffee on her back deck with friends and morning snuggles from her 100-lb. chocolate lab, Hudson. She writes with a passion to share how to live holy, where faith and life intersect. Connect with her at www.deniseroberts.org.

Photograph © Ilya Yakover, used with permission