I’m pretty sure I have written before about my dreams, and how I believe this is one way in which Jesus talks to me. I believe He will and has in my case, send us messages in various way, many times we just don’t listen.

This makes me wonder if Satan also does the same. The reason I say this is or the last three nights I have been having very strange dreams. Now as my better half will tell you, most of my dreams are very strange, but these are more so than usual. Coupled with this, I am also having more than my usual temptations. I won’t discuss either the dreams or the temptations, let’s just say I have been dreaming and thinking about things I shouldn’t be. Why all of a sudden this is happening, I can’t say, but I don’t like it.

Now I understand I can’t control my dreams, but it is the thoughts I worry about, the temptations caused by these thoughts, those I can control. It is my strictly unprofessional opinion that for some reason lately, Satan is trying to lure me back to places I don’t want to go. I’ve alluded to some things I have done in the past and I don’t want to go back there again. And unfortunately the dreams are about that past.

Thomas Kempis in “The Imitation Of Christ” says:

Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away. There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us—in sin we were born. When one temptation or trial passes, another comes; we shall always have something to suffer because we have lost the state of original blessedness.

And I realize there will always be temptation, especially or me because of the life I lived. So I can only hope that fighting them will make me stronger. After all, Jesus himself was tempted for 40 days:

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. – Mark 4:12 – 13

and He won, and since I am not dealing with anything like He did, I know I can as well, since I find strength in Him. And I know from Him what I must do:

 When he reached the place, he said to them,“Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.” – Luke 22:40

A Prayer to Rebuke Satan:

Heavenly Father, I ask You in the name, and through the Blood of Your Divine Son, to rebuke Satan for taking captive that which belongs to You.
I ask Jesus to place His Crown of thorns around me so that those with wrong influences will lose interest and depart.
Mary Mother of Jesus, place your mantle of love around, me, your son.
Amen
St. Michael, protect me.