“But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” (Matthew 16:23). When God cast out Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, at the same time He cursed the serpent and gave him only one power. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15). Satan only has the power to nip at our heels. If it sometimes seems like he is much more powerful than that, it is because we give him that power. At any time, we can tell him, Get thee behind me, Satan! Every time that we turn away from Satan and keep our eyes fixed on our Savior Jesus Christ, we are putting Satan behind us. Every time we set aside our anger or our lust or our addictions or our lies, we are putting Satan behind us. Every time we choose love over hate, kindness over judgement, light over darkness, we are putting Satan behind us. It is no fun having Satan sinking his fangs into our heels but it is so much better to have him behind us than to cower in front of him and allow him to strike all over. I know that the power of Christ's Atonement is real and is much stronger than Satan on His best day. With Jesus's help we can always tell Satan to get behind us. He may still occasionally bruise our heels from behind, but if we keep pressing forward then we will eventually crush his head.
