“Why does Satan attack the most when I am waiting for God?”

November 2020 – Grace & Truth Magazine

QUESTION: Why does Satan attack the most when I am waiting for God to answer my prayer?

ANSWER: Satan, who among his other names and titles is called “the prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2 ( NKJV ), is God’s long-lasting enemy. He cannot fight God directly, but he often tries sneak attacks. For instance, it seems he attempted to drown the Lord Jesus and His disciples by raising a sudden, fierce windstorm as they were crossing the Sea of Galilee at night – the Lord asleep on a pillow in the boat. The waves were beating into the boat and it was filling with water when the disciples in their fear excitedly awoke Him, crying, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” (Mk. 4:38).

The Lord Jesus is no longer here on earth in person. Satan now seeks to attack those who belong to the Lord, those who are the objects of His love. If he can hurt them, he will go to the very limit of what God may permit. We see this in the story of Job (Job 2:6-7). The Adversary will seek to shake the believer’s faith in God, in God’s love, in His goodness, in His power and in the fact that God cares. So, when we are waiting for God to answer our prayers, Satan will make every effort against us.

While we are waiting – often impatiently – he attacks. His attacks can be vicious, and they can be successful for a time. Daniel once had to wait for 21 days while one of Satan’s powerful demons was fighting the angel who had been sent with the answer to his prayer. We read about this in Daniel 10. Incidentally, when we speak of Satan or attribute something to him, it is probably not Satan personally doing whatever it may be. He can only be in one place at a time and is probably occupied with much bigger prey than you and me. In his place, Satan has a vast host of demons, fallen angels, working for and with him.

Patience is not a virtue that is natural to us. Longsuffering is one of the aspects of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. It is a component of patience. Endurance is another. We live, normally, in a fast-moving world. In America especially we like fast food, fast service, and fast almost everything else! God cannot be rushed. He moves at His own wise pace. So, when we are waiting for an answer to our prayers, Satan tries to take full advantage of the opportunity to attack and discourage us. He would have us think that God is not interested in us, God doesn’t care about us, or even God is not there. But who are we to tell God to hurry, in other words, that He must work on the schedule we set for Him? Let’s remember that God is God!

Satan does not hesitate to try to get us to doubt God’s love as we wait for the answer to our prayers. He would have us be occupied with ourselves, indeed, with anything but the love and goodness of our God and Father. He knows our weaknesses and does not hesitate to point them out to us. He sows doubts and tries to sidetrack or destroy faith. The deceiver is sensible and realistic, and he may come as a roaring lion or as an angel of light, whatever he feels will work to upset us and get our eyes off the Lord.

If Satan can get us occupied with wrong things or to do things that displease the Lord, this may be a reason our prayers seem to go unanswered. Psalm 66:18 tells us plainly, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” The bulk of the psalm gives clear testimony to the Lord having heard and answered the psalmist’s prayer, but that verse gives us a principle showing why prayers sometimes are not answered.

We see in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, when Satan came and tempted the Lord Jesus in the wilderness at the onset of the Lord’s ministry, that Satan knows the Scripture and tries to twist and use it for his nefarious, or extremely wicked, purposes. He had the audacity to try to use Scripture to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ; we should not be surprised to find him misusing God’s Word as he attacks us.

As we read our Bibles we will find again and again that God is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God. Pay no attention to Satan’s efforts to challenge this fact. God loves us and wants the best for us, but He will answer prayer in a way that will bring glory to His name. What must Martha and Mary have thought when the Lord did not immediately come to their aid after they sent word to Him that their brother, whom the Lord loved just as much as He loved them, was sick? What must Jairus have thought when Jesus, on the way to his house where his daughter lay at the point of death, took time to deal with a woman who had touched the hem of His garment, had gotten healed and was slipping away? God’s thoughts and ways are as much higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth!

Read Psalms. Many of them express the deep feelings of believers who were crying to the Lord in their need. Often one sees how the enemy attacks, attempting to discourage. God does not change. He is faithful. Scripture teaches us this, and we have experienced it – praise His name. “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4:7). “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!” (Ps. 27:14).

Answered by Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.