As Christian bloggers, we have the power and ability to make huge strides for the Kingdom of God. And, obviously, this doesn’t sit well with the devil. So, it is no surprise that Christian bloggers may feel attacks from the enemy more often and in more creative (and powerful) ways than those who aren’t leaders for God’s Army.
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Spiritual Warfare for Christian Bloggers
Spiritual warfare is a normal part of life for Christians. Those who are making any progress for the Kingdom of God are going to be attacked from every direction because the enemy doesn’t want us to win. Spiritual warfare for Christian bloggers is no different! Why? Because we have such a powerful and far-reaching platform for sharing God’s message.
The devil knows this so he has gotten pretty creative in how he comes at us. All in an effort to keep us from publishing blog posts full of Biblical hope and encouragement for others to read and get closer to God.
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Ephesians 6:11 NIV
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
The best way to combat these attacks is to simply stand firm in your faith and know that God will be there to protect you!
Imposter Syndrome and Feeling Unworthy
One of the biggest ways the enemy attacks us as Christian bloggers is by making us question our own qualifications to be writing for Jesus. Most of us haven’t gone to Seminary or anything like that so we often begin to worry what others might think of us sharing the Gospel in a sort of “formal” way. What I mean by that is that we are all called to share the Gospel, but before the Internet, this was done simply by speaking to each other (not so formal). But something about having a website seems more “official” or formal – something an “expert” should be doing and not us.
Also, we all have baggage. How can we preach the gospel in this way but our own lives are often far from being completely free of sin and drama and all that other stuff. I mean, those who share the Gospel are supposed to have it all together, right?
WRONG!
As Christians, we might perceive our Pastors and church leaders as being somewhat “perfect” because they are so close to God. But the truth is that they are just like us – except they spend quite a bit more time studying God’s Word than the rest of us.
There are no (formal) qualifications listed in the Bible for those who wish to share the contents of said Bible! Quite the opposite, actually. As Christians, we are ALL called to share the Good News.
But, more importantly, God put it on your heart to share His message as a Christian blogger which means He feels that you ARE worthy of that calling!
Related:
Success Comparison
Another way the enemy gets to us as Christian bloggers is by causing us to question our success. For most Christian bloggers, it is a daily struggle to get actual readers to come read the content we write. This often leads to thoughts like “maybe I’m just not supposed to do this blogging stuff” or something like that.
Top that off with seeing others who are doing so well and it can really cause us to just want to throw in the towel and quit. But that is exactly what the enemy wants! He wants to make you feel like you aren’t good enough so you’ll be one less person sharing God’s message on the Internet.
As with everything else in life – the comparison trap is one of the best tools Satan has in his bag of tricks – and it applies to us as bloggers. Each one of us is in a different place in our individual blogging journey. Instead of saying “How do I achieve the same as her” change it to “What do I need to do to reach XX goal with my blog?”
For example, you find another blogger boasting of high traffic to her site or that she has finally reached 1000 subscribers. Instead of comparing your sucky stats to hers, think of specific goals you want to attain and decide what needs to be done to reach them (reach YOUR goal, not her stats).
Often, this is as simple as taking the time to truly understand how all this blogging stuff works (target audience, keywords, SEO, etc). Most bloggers that I talk to who are struggling with their stats (and sinking into the comparison trap) often haven’t taken the time to really educate themselves in the technical part of blogging.
Negative Comments
This is a big one! How many times have you received a negative comment on a blog post, on a social media post, or even in an email? And what did you do? Most likely, you sat and stewed over it for a long time! And this “stewing” probably led to thoughts where you doubted yourself, questioned your intentions, questioned your faith, and questioned whether you should keep blogging.
Here are some truth-bombs when it comes to comments:
There are people out there who intentionally troll websites and social media profiles and leave negative comments on purpose. Not because they are truly upset or in disagreement with your post, but to simply stir up controversy. This happens a lot of church sites/social profiles. Why? Because the enemy knows that he can insert just a bit of negativity or controversy and cause the Christians (those following the thread) to start arguing. Next thing you know, your comment thread or social feed is just one big hateful mess of nastiness!
But more importantly, the things that are often said are intentionally crafted in a way to make you doubt or question yourself. And that is what the enemy wants. He also wants us to fight each other instead of being unified for Christ.
If God put in on your heart to write it and you are using the Bible to back it up – then don’t allow negative comments cause you to question what God has called you to do (write).
[bctt tweet=”As Christian bloggers, we are prime targets for the tactics of the devil. He will do anything and everything to keep us from sharing God’s message online. ” username=”kingdomblogger1″]
Loss of Subscribers/Followers
When you see people unsubscribing from your email list or notice that your social following numbers have gone down – it stings, doesn’t it? You’re thinking that your content just isn’t good and nobody likes you and you should just give up this pipe-dream of being a successful Christian blogger! Or worse – you start second-guessing the way you are writing the message God has put on your heart because you think some were offended.
Why do we base our value and worth in how many friends we have, how many followers, how many subscribers? The truth is that I have a handful of people unsubscribe every single week and I’m totally OK with that. My message wasn’t meant for everyone. Those who need to hear it (or in my case, learn from it) will stay and those who don’t – well, I wish them well. But I don’t place my value as a Christian blogger in being able to boast of a super-large subscriber list.
The truth is that, just like people in your life, subscribers and followers come and go. But true friends are the ones that stay. The subscribers/followers that left weren’t your target audience so let them go! Your message, your testimony – is meant to help someone (not everyone)! Don’t take offense when some decide they no longer need your message in their inbox or in their social feed.
But, more importantly, your value as a Christian blogger isn’t defined by your follower count. It is defined by the fact that you are a child of God!
Distractions
Distractions are a normal part of life – and even more normal for women. But for Christian bloggers, these can also be something the devil uses to get us off track. Have you ever started writing a new post because God put something really powerful on your heart to share with others – and the distractions just seem to get out of hand?
I have ADHD so staying on task is always a struggle. But when I’m working on a really great blog post it seems that the “squirrels” seem to be popping out all over the place!
- My daughter texting me that she forgot something and needs it at school.
- An abundance of notifications from Facebook.
- The dog needs to go out (so he can come back in and then want to go out again)
- Incoming phone calls.
- Family issues.
The only way to curb the distractions is to realize they are, in fact, intentional distractions. Instead of getting frustrated, find the workaround. Frustration causes your brain to focus on the problem instead of focusing on your writing. While you can’t completely get rid of all distractions, you can put controls in place to minimize them.
This is a necessity for me because I get sucked into rabbit-holes on a regular basis! Some ways that I minimize this are:
- Not having Facebook open in another tab
- Turning my phone to vibrate and placing it face-down (so I can see the notifications
- Propping the backdoor open (so the dogs can do what they need to do)
- Getting up before everyone else in order to have an hour of distraction-free time
Technology
Technology is a great thing but can be a huge source of frustration and anxiety for most Christian bloggers. Most of us are not formally trained and are simply learning it (or trying to) as we go.
The enemy is great at playing on our fears and anxieties and will use this to his advantage is steering us off-course. Everything seems to be going along fine and out of the blue your computer crashes! Or your email sequence fails. Or you can’t get images to line up correctly in a blog post.
For about the last month, the devil has been testing my patience with technology. A Christian blogging group that I’m in is doing a video challenge all month where we either go live or post videos to our different social channels. Just about the time this challenge started, my Internet started dropping pretty much every single day. I’d be doing an interview video with another blogger and – BAM – the call would drop because the Internet connection failed.
But instead of just throwing in the towel on doing the challenge, I just rescheduled the interviews to another time and recorded some of my own videos in batches so I’d have some on standby in case of more technical issues.
Something else I want to leave you with on this particular topic…
I often hear other bloggers say things like ‘I’m so dumb when it comes to this technical stuff.” The truth is that I’ve been known to say similar things but in regards to my ability to write content centered around faith topics (instead of blogging tips). But at the end of the day, I remind myself that God has gifted each of us with certain talents and abilities and each one of us has a place in all of this.
Literal feelings of evil around you
Since becoming a Christian blogger, have you sensed that something unholy was nearby? Like you just sensed a presence that scared the crap out of you?
One night (about a year ago) when I was first building the Kingdom Bloggers site and coaching other Christian bloggers on how to optimize their blogs for SEO (so God’s word could be found on the internet), I felt the devil coming at me in a way that I had never experienced before! I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and when I laid back down. I just suddenly sensed that something evil was in my room!
I started having thoughts of the movie “Exorcist” and all the things that happened in that movie. But I had enough sense to know that I had the power to control where my mind when and immediately grabbed my phone and started playing “Not Today” by Hillsong United and found my way back to sleep.
The next day I told my life group about it and they all agreed that this was the devil trying to scare me out of creating this site because he knew the potential it had to win more souls for God.
Lack of family/spouse support
When we don’t feel the support of our family, it can cause us to question what we are doing. The truth is that most family members aren’t going to fully support us as Christian bloggers. Not that they don’t care, they simply aren’t as invested in it as we are. But the enemy will use this in a way to cause us the harbor ill-feelings to our spouses or other family members.
I would say you can related this to the things they get excited about that you don’t. For me, it is football. My husband is always talking about football and I’m just like “uh-huh” because it just isn’t something I understand or care about.
The thing to remember is that God called you – not your spouse or family – to blogging. His approval is the only one that matters
Not Today Satan!
The truth is that we, as Christian bloggers, have a massive target on our backs – and Satan’s minions are lined up and waiting to take us out!
But remember this – no one, not even the devil, will waste their time on something that isn’t a concern. That means that what you have to share is going to bring someone much closer to God and possibly even save a few lost souls.
So, YES – you can expect the devil to be around every corner waiting to mess with you in some way. But you can also expect, and find peace in knowing that God has equipped you to go to battle for Him. He isn’t going to leave you alone to deal with the devil’s tactics.
God put it on your heart to share his message as a Christian blogger so he will always be there to guide you to the people and resources that you need to fulfill that calling. And He will be there to help you in fighting the enemy that comes against you.
When you feel the enemy coming at you and your blog, PRAY! Pray for clarity and peace – and know that God will get you through it!
In what ways have you felt the enemy attacking you as a Christian blogger? How did you deal with it?
