Reflect — Escaping the Wiles of the Devil

Lesson Reading

Read alongside this lesson: Letters 8, 28, and 31.

Why these. Letter 8 is the Law of Undulation, the truth that the Christian life moves in troughs and peaks, and that God relies on the troughs even more than the peaks: "Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys." Letter 28 is about perseverance over the long haul, why time and middle-aged drift are the enemy's allies, and why the patient must be kept from "feeling at home" on earth. Letter 31 is the end of the book: the patient dies in the air raid, sees Christ, and is saved, and Screwtape loses him forever. Together these three letters carry the doctrine of perseverance, the means of grace, and the final hope.

Discussion and Reflection Questions

  1. In Letter 8, Lewis describes the "Law of Undulation," the way the Christian life moves in peaks and troughs of feeling. Why does Screwtape fear the troughs more than the peaks? What is God doing in a believer during the dry seasons, according to this letter?

  2. Screwtape says their cause is never in more danger than when a Christian, "no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy's will," feels abandoned and still obeys. Have you ever obeyed God when you felt nothing, when he seemed absent? What did that obedience do in you? If you have never been there, what does this tell you to expect?

  3. Letter 28 warns that time itself is the enemy's ally, that the "long, dull monotonous years" of middle-aged prosperity or adversity are excellent "campaigning weather" because it is so hard to persevere. Where are you most tempted to coast, to let your faith settle into routine and slowly cool? What does perseverance require of you in that exact place?

  4. Scripture grounds our perseverance not in our grip on God but in his grip on us: "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). How does the certainty that God will finish what he started change the way you face a long, unglamorous stretch of obedience?

  5. Paul names the real fight and the real armor: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities... Therefore take up the whole armor of God" (Ephesians 6:12-13). Across these six lessons, which "wile of the devil" has Screwtape exposed in you most clearly? Which piece of God's armor do you most need to take up against it?

  6. In Letter 31, the patient dies, sees Christ, and is taken home, and Screwtape loses him forever. Lewis describes the moment as a stripping off of "a defiled, wet, clinging garment." After studying how relentlessly the enemy works, how does the certainty of that final deliverance steady you for the fight now?

  7. The ordinary means of grace, the Word, prayer, the Lord's Supper, the gathered church, are how God keeps his people through the whole undulating life. Which of these have you been neglecting? Name one, and name the specific change you will make this week to take it up again as a weapon, not a routine.