Strengthening Ourselves Against Attack

Contributors	J. Boulos
Objective	Through prayer, fasting, Bible reading, and other spiritual activities, we can strengthen ourselves against attacks from evil.
Materials Needed	Have a few balloons blown up and some large (easy to see) needles.
Summary	Take the pin and pop a balloon explaining how the devil makes a small sin and, if we are not prepared, we are destroyed spiritually. A balloon pops when a tear is introduced into the polymers that hold the rubber of the balloon together. The tear weakens the overall structure and it quickly degenerates and pops. This can be likened to what the devil can do to us. Our lives are always stretched tight like a balloon and the devil doesn't need to come at us in very obvious ways. He doen't have to tempt us in huge sins to make us "pop". Small sins are the ones that weaken the integrity of our spiritual resolve and if it is not supported, we will quickly fall away from God. But there is hope... Explain that if we strengthen ourselves by knowing the scriptures, we can resist temptation. Retell the story of Christ being tempted in the wilderness by the devil for 40 days/nights. Pay special attention to how He vanquished each sin by the scriptures. Now take a roll of scotch tape and explain that by reading the Bible, the writings of the early church fathers, prayeing constantly, and meditating on the word of God, we can reinforce our precarious spiritual lives. The tape is that reinforcement gained by Christian education, faith, and prayer. Now take the tape and press a piece firmly on another balloon. Explain that this is the preparation we talked about before; it is spiritual reading/educatoin, it is prayer, etc. Now press the pin through the tape and balloon. The balloon should not pop because as the pin weakens the balloon strucutre, the tape reinforces it and prevents it from pulling itself apart and popping.
Additional Resources	A very similar idea is illustrated on this site: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGroll/VI1.htm
Keywords	balloon pop, strong with God, weak alone
Date Submitted	11/12/2008