There’s something wrong with every marriage — we have idolatrous hearts. Because there’s something wrong with the heart of every person that ever gets married, there’s something wrong with every marriage. Idolatry is the key problem with every marriage —with every relationship. Idolatry is trying to make life work without God. (Scott Engelman)

If we agree with Scott Engleman’s premise that we all have idolatrous hearts it’s important to understand who the author of idolatry is—Satan. In fact, it’s critical that we understand what his plan is—to destroy us (spiritually speaking) and destroy our marriages.

He knows that God has designed the covenant of marriage to be a living picture of Christ’s love for His Church. And that’s a picture He attacks every chance he has. Unfortunately all too many of us are helping him do this—without ever realizing it.

There’s been a story circulating widely for a while. When a friend sent it to us recently, we saw how it could help us understand and identify the “enemy of marriage” and how he’s trying to tear our marriages (and all relationships) apart. We hope that when you’re done reading it you’ll take the time to look at your marriage and answer the question that’s posed honestly.

While we don’t know who the author is, we’ve heard it’s a paraphrase from C.S. Lewis’ classic book, The Screwtape Letters. The story reads:

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said, “We can’t keep Christians from going to church. We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their savior.

Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered Dish dinners, but steal their time, so they don’t have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.”

“This is what I want you to do,” said the devil. “Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!” His demons shouted back, “How can we do this?” “Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent as many schemes as possible to occupy their minds,” he answered.

“Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. And as their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!

Over-stimulate their minds so that they can’t hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive— to keep the TV, VCR, DVD, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their homes. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break their union with Christ.

Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes. This will also keep them too busy to read their Bibles and other Christian literature that could help them in their everyday lives.

Keep pictures of skinny, beautiful models in all the magazines and on TV and everywhere you can so the wives become dissatisfied with their own bodies. This will also help their husbands to believe that outward beauty is what’s important, and they’ll become dissatisfied with their wives as well.

Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night. Give them headaches too! If they don’t give their husbands the love they need, they’ll begin to look elsewhere. That’ll eventually fragment their families!

Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas. Give them an Easter bunny so they won’t talk about his resurrection and power over sin and death.

Even in their recreation, let them be excessive— have them return from their recreation exhausted. Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God’s creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead. Keep them busy all the time they’re awake!

And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, help them to leave with troubled consciences.

Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus. Soon they’ll be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause.”

It was a great plan! The demons went eagerly to their assignments influencing Christians everywhere to have little time for their God their marriages or their families, and little or no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives. I guess the question is—has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge!

Our love and prayers are continually with you as together we work to honor God in our marriages.

Steve and Cindy Wright

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