Hack Proof

My email account was hacked this past weekend.

This is now on the list of my most frustrating experiences to date. It has reinforced how important email has become to the flow of communication in my life, whether for good or bad. Thankfully, many great friends let me know about the scam right away (although by the time the 3rd one told me I was a bit grumpy), plus they all seemed to understood me enough to know I wasn’t in the Philippines trying to save an ailing cousin for which their money was required.

However, the struggle to get my email back under my control was a whole other issue.

Somehow, probably through a phishing email, I had allowed these fiends access to my account. With this access they had not only emailed this fictional story to all of my contacts but gone ahead and deleted each name from my account. As I was trying to recover my email they were initially able to block my attempts to get a new password by removing and changing phone numbers and other key information. In this process they also changed the language setting so I could not even figure out what to click on to make the necessary requests. Finally, through the help of a friendly woman from Best Buy’s Geek Squad, I was able to get a new password in place, change the language back to English, and begin the recovery process. That process also involved changing the setting that was now sending all my emails directly to trash. Thankfully, I now have put all new passwords on my accounts and have hopefully put in some new security protocols that will keep me safe. I don’t want to go through this again if I can help it.

This experience reminded me that there is another fiend that hacks into my life.

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

The enemy the devil is always “phishing” to get control of my mind and I too often allow him access. Whenever I have allowed this access into my thinking through the flow of communication it has thrown my whole world into chaos. This fiend started very early in life hacking into my experiences in order to change the language of my life to include insecurity, self-hatred and fear. He was even able to spread his message through those around me who would call me stupid or ugly and I was much to quick to agree with them. He would attempt to delete any contact with the truth and then manipulate all attempts to correct my thinking. I ended up with some dysfunctional settings that played a major role in the wrong decisions made in my life. This identity thief’s desire has been to steal, kill and destroy my life and any witness for Christ.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;   John 10:10a

The struggle to get this under control is an ongoing issue.

By God’s grace, I am learning to rely on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, my spiritual Geek Squad, to help me counter the enemy’s schemes. Through their help I continue to take captive any wrong language and set it back to the language God’s speaks.  I continue on my way to recovery as the Holy Spirit helps me knock down the enemy’s plot to send God’s messages directly to the trash of human reasoning which would fill me with false arguments.

We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 2 Corinthians 10:4

God has provided me the best security protocol against this fiend.

Daily, sometimes even minute by minute, I can install the security measures of the armor of God (Ephesians 6:12-19). With each piece in place I will be able to guard against further hacks into the account of my life. Though I understand that the “phishing” by the devil will continue until Jesus returns, I know that as I resist responding to them and submit each attack to my Heavenly Father I can become hack proof.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you James 4:7