What the Devil Really Wants

His goal is not to get you to sin.

Jun 11, 2025

I know perfectly well how it feels to sin when you promised you wouldn’t again. Don’t we all?

Broken promises and the perpetual struggle against Adam’s inheritance of a tainted soul. The never-ending cycle of disappointment and self-loathing of a man too weak to say no to the animal in him.

Does it sound familiar? Do you also wrestle against the tempting allure of hopelessness?

Most of us know that, at the hour of temptation, there’s a spiritual battle going on inside of us. Sometimes God’s grace helps us win, sometimes we lose and believe the lies of the evil one.

The devil is smarter than you, me, and all of us combined. He tricks us into sin, he manipulates us with lies and with false promises of peace. He misleads us towards the abyss, and rejoices when we slip into it. He looks down on us mockingly, laughing and taunting us for our weakness.

We know this. We feel all the weight of his hateful laughter when we regain consciousness after temptation clouds our judgment. We know we’ve failed. Satan knows he got us to fail.

But do you think he releases his grip then?

Do you think he leaves us alone after he causes us to stumble?

Not at all. Sin is not the end goal for him. It’s simply the first step of a downward spiral that leads towards the fires of hell.

He gets you to sin so you’re vulnerable and graceless. That’s easy for him. Doesn’t he succeed often?

But it’s after you’ve sinned that he really attacks. He hides himself in your own consciousness, and whispers from the darkness that you’re fighting a losing battle. He convinces you that it’s hopeless, that you’ve lost God’s love. He focuses your mind’s eye on the many times you’ve failed your Creator, and he repeats that you’ll never be anything but a wretched sinner. That it’s not worth trying anymore. That you’ll always fail.

He tells you God is angry, and he makes you believe He’s also unjust. He makes up stories about God not caring for you, and he poisons you with a rebellious spirit.

“What’s the point?”, you ask. “There is no point” the devil answers hastily.

Satan’s true intention is not for you to fail, although he obviously loves it when you do. But even at our lowest, God’s mercy reaches out. He forgives us, infinitely, repeatedly, even after failing Him again and again. God knows you’ll stumble and fall, otherwise He wouldn’t have made such an effort to bring us forgiveness.

What the Devil really wants is for you to stop trying. For you to give up hope, think the battle futile, and surrender your soul to him. Only then are you truly lost.

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C.S. Lewis writes about this in Mere Christianity:

If we sin, we can repent. And often, that’s all that God wants from us. That strength, that humility to lower ourselves before Him, understand we cannot do it alone, and ask for His saving grace.

You’re not lost if you’ve fallen prey to temptation again. Don’t let the devil convince you that you are. You are only lost when you rebel against God and decide He can’t forgive you. That’s the kind of pride that the devil tries to instill in you. As long as you keep getting up, crawling back to Christ, repent, and ask for His forgiveness, God will keep working on you, and slowly but surely, you’ll start winning the battles that you still fight.

Don’t fall for the lies of the evil one. You are loved even at your lowest, and God’s mercy is bigger than your sins.

He reaches out to you, all He needs is that you reach out to Him too. Even when you sin. Especially when you sin.