one of the best weapons against the Devil

Today in A Year with the Church Fathers, St Cyril of Alexandria tells us about defending ourselves against attacks by the enemy. He discusses that the enemy attacks where we're weakest. But we've covered that already. One phrase he uses, though, reminded me of another demonic attack.

St Cyril says, "When we thoroughly search the Scriptures, we learn that..." and goes on to talk about attacks by the devil. But that first phrase reminded me of when Jesus was in the desert. When Satan came and tempted Him, He didn't blast him with fire. He didn't turn His back and ignore him. He didn't indulge in ad hominem (ad demoniem?) attacks, and talk about how the Devil is going to hell.

What DID He do? He quoted scripture. When Jesus, who was God Himself, and perfect, without sin, was attacked by the Devil, He used the verses from the Bible that He had memorized to defeat those attacks. I'm pretty sure we can learn something from this.

How often do you spend time in the Bible? How many verses have you memorized? Are you ready, at a moment's notice, to whip out a verse and defeat the enemy's attacks? If you're like me, the answer is... eh. We could probably use some work.

I encourage you to spend time in scripture. One of the best ways I know of is the One Year Bible. You can buy it here for about $9, either as a physical book (used. it's about $16 new) or as a Kindle book. Then you can carry it around on your phone and read it anytime. I love the One Year Bible because it makes it super simple. You just turn to today's date and read the excerpt for today. It has a reading from the Old Testament, a reading from the New Testament, and a Psalm and a Proverb for each day. If you read it every day, you make it through the whole Bible in a year. If you miss a day, or even a few days, no problem. Just pick up with today's date and keep going. If you miss a few days each year, you will still read the whole Bible in a couple or three years' time.

Besides that, I invite you to spend 2018 with me as I go through the One Year Bible as YouTube videos. I plan to record each day as a video, so next year you can just click on the video and listen to it being read to you. A great way to read through the Bible while you're driving, or waiting in line, or whatever you do when you can spare a few minutes to listen. And it will be free. I'll also have a brief reflection each day on the reading, but in a separate video, so you can just listen to one or the other, or both.

In any case, please spend some time in the Bible. It is, as we learn from Jesus, the most effective way to defeat the attacks of our enemy.

God, thank You for giving us the Bible. Please help us to study it.