What I said on May 17th, August 4th, and December 26th of last year is still true. I still get to my blog by making a web search for it. On December 26th, I noted that the top hits for my blog were "Sword of the Spirit" and "Helmet of Salvation." Now, that has changed. Now the search engine gives me a direct link to the my recent blog post, but it also gives me a link to a specific post, that of May 2nd, 2013, Moroni's Diligence. Since the subject matter I wrote about then has been on my mind lately, I thought I'd blog about it again.
I wrote in my journal recently that I felt kind of safe - that Satan wasn't really tempting me all that much, or at least that it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I felt like I didn't really have a whole lot to worry about, which I instantly understood wasn't true. I've heard it said that life isn't a cruise ship - it's a battleship, and if you're not being shot at, you should be grateful for that. But I think that if you think you're not being shot at, you should probably check again. Satan is extremely subtle and he's always on the attack. If he's not attacking you in ways that you recognize, then he's probably working to weaken your spiritual defenses. Which is why Moroni's example is so important.
One thing that Moroni is famous for (besides his short fuse) is how well he defended the armies he commanded. The first thing he did as their commander is get them some armor, and while their war was in a brief hiatus, he built and rebuilt fortresses around all the cities of the Nephites. He continually improved the Nephites' defenses as much as he could, knowing that the Lamanites would be back eventually, and his men would have to fight them off once again.
Though we may drive Satan away as frequently as he shows up to tempt us, we should never grow comfortable, thinking that we're as good at resisting temptation as we need to be. We need to continually improve our spiritual defenses in order to keep Satan at bay. We need to keep strengthening our testimonies. We need to keep praying, keep fasting, and keep reading the scriptures to make sure we'll always be strong enough to resist evil. We know that Satan will always come back to try and tempt us time and time again, but it's impossible to guess how subtle and how alluring those temptations will be, so we should follow Captain Moroni's example and continue to strengthen our resolve to keep the commandments. We're not safe from Satan's influence, and as long as we're alive, I'm not sure we ever will be.
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