The accuser of our brothers...

Revelation 12:10

Satan is sometimes referred to as the accuser of Christian brothers and sisters. The reason for this is that he works against you, Christian, by bringing to mind your sins and failures in an attempt to make you lose heart.

Satan only uses this strategy with believers. Why doesn’t he use this strategy with nonbelievers? Because it would be counterproductive and completely against his interests to do so. As long as people are unaware of their own sin, they remain unaware of their need for a saviour.

His main strategy with sinners is to keep them in the dark about their own sin, and to keep them in denial, in order to make them think that their sin is really not a big issue—now or for eternity. But when a person is in Christ, the enemy takes every opportunity to bring accusations to the mind and to the heart of that person.

One way that he does this is to raise the memory of past sins. When he does this, you might think, That was a long time ago, but back it will come into your mind. You need to know how to deal with the accusations of your enemy, and how to get your heart at rest again in the presence of God, so that you do not lose heart.