He's Pushing My Buttons by Dawn White

He’s Pushing My Buttons

Scripture:  James 4:7

7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Perhaps you’ve observed the scenario I’m about to describe. If you’re a parent, you may have seen it in your own children.  The scenario is where one individual is the irritator and the other is the irritatee, or the one being irritated.  I’ve told my own girls countless number of times, ‘Just ignore her and she’ll stop.  She’s only continuing because she knows it’s getting to you.’  Again, these are words that I have spoken more times than I can count.  

But, just recently, I got a new perspective on these words.  I have an accountability partner, who is a tremendous blessing to me.  She is so gifted in holding me accountable in love, which is the whole purpose of an accountability partner.  In one of our recent meetings, I was sharing with her a frustration of mine.  She told me that satan knew what buttons to push to cause me to ‘come undone’.  She suggested that I change my response and thus satan would quit pushing the buttons.

This is so simple, and yet was so profound to me.  So now my quest is to disable the buttons that have been hotwired for satan.  Why is it important that I disable the buttons?  

When I get frustrated, I have a strong tendency to start complaining about the situation/circumstance.  The Bible says in Philippians 2:14, ‘Do everything without complaining or arguing.’  Thus, when I complain, I am disobeying the directive from God.  And, there is a reason He gave us this directive.  When we start to complain, the devil takes that opportunity to make the issue bigger than life.  The more we meditate on it, the bigger it becomes.  In Psalm 77:13b it says – I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.  Eventually, as stated in this scripture, our heart becomes overwhelmed by the situation.  

After I have complained and the issue has grown 100-fold in magnitude, at least in my mind, the next thing that follows is my attitude.  I then become irritable because of something that has mushroomed in my mind to be way more than it really is.  And then I began to speak words that I don’t like to speak, definitely not words of life.  

At this point I have become frustrated, irritated, and I’m saying things I don’t like to say.  This is just where the devil wants me.  I’ve disobeyed God and am no longer in right standing with Him.  And the devil has chalked up another victory.

Believe it or not, these situations are also what God uses to discipline us.  If we continue to give in to the temptations of the enemy and the desires of the flesh, we are not fully surrendered to our Lord Jesus.  God uses these to teach us to fully submit to Him.  The scripture above says, ‘Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.’  We have a choice to make in these circumstances.  Will we submit to God and resist the devil or will we give in to the devil’s temptations?  If we give in to the temptations, we have more training ahead of us.  

God desires in us a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17).  He wants us fully dependent on Him, and He wants to help you.  When the enemy pushes your buttons, and the buttons are different for everyone, cry out to God for His help in fighting the good fight of faith.  He will help you to stand firm to do what is the perfect and pleasing will of God.  Joyce Meyer says she will lock herself in a room reading her Bible and praying until God changes her heart, and she can come out not being moved by the situation.

If we cry out to God, the enemy definitely doesn’t like that.  But, if we are persistent in not succumbing to his temptations, eventually he will give up.  It is a continual process of submitting to God and resisting the devil.  And, it is a process we cannot do in our own strength.  We need the strength of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  And, He is more than willing to give it to us; all we have to do is ask.

Until next time – I’m submitting and resisting!

Blessings!