We're all familiar with those made-up excuses we tell ourselves not do what God says we should. Thoughts like, 'There’s no point reading my Bible because I’m tired and won’t get anything out of it' or 'I can’t pray today, God doesn’t like me, I’ve sinned too much, I’ll try again tomorrow'. Dead puritan Thomas Brooks (1608-1680) wrote Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices about those exact excuses.
The puritans get a bad rap for being boring, joyless, stick-in-the-muds, but the reality is very much the opposite. Living and ministering in 16th and 17th Century England, the puritans were united by Reformed theology, joyful studying of all God has done in the past, and preaching those things to their congregations in a particularly tempestuous time in English history. We don’t know much about Thomas Brooks, but we know he refused to leave his church in London during the great plague that killed 15 per cent of the population.
This book though, is worth remembering him for. Brooks says the way Satan works against Christians is with these devices, these excuses and lies that he gets Christians to believe so they lose heart, forget the gospel, and disobey God. Brooks shows various different devices and for each one he provides remedies against them. He shows what God really says and why Satan’s devices are lies. Here’s an example (all quotes from Brooks): Satan will try to prevent a Christian from the discipline of prayer and serving God 'by presenting to the soul the difficulty of performing [these disciplines]'. Satan will say, 'It’s a hard and difficult thing to pray as you should, to wait on God as you should, and to walk with God as you should', so you’d be ten thousand times better off not bothering in the first place. To this device, Brooks offers five remedies, things such as, 'Consider, that the Lord Jesus will make his services easy to you, by the sweet discovery of himself to your souls, whilst you are in his service,' and, 'Dwell upon the hard and difficult things that the Lord Jesus has passed through for your temporary, spiritual, eternal good.' He opens up each remedy and explains it from scripture.
When reading this book, there’ll be sections you’ll skip over - devices Satan uses that he hasn’t needed for you yet. And then one will grab you and punch you in the gut and you’ll see that this is a lie that the devil whispers in your ear which you’re tempted to believe. And then you read the warm pastoral counsel that Brooks gives and see how these are lies and God has promised much better things if you persevere and trust him. And when your young people listen to the lies of Satan and say things like 'why can’t I just do this and then ask for forgiveness later' you can remember the remedies Brooks shows and help them see how much better God’s way is.
Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices by Thomas Brooks is published by Banner of Truth in their Puritan Paperback series. (You can get it in other places, but if you buy it in this series, and buy some other ones, then all the book spines will line up beautifully on your bookcase.)
