The Devil Knows Better

how he tempts the overthinker

Fayth Ong
3 min readJan 23, 2025
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

The devil knows better than to tempt me with jewelry I wish I could wear, or with parties that stay up until the sun rises. He knows I wouldn’t give in to the invites of men or to the smell of alcohol.

But he does know better. And he knows that should I choose to escape from this world, I’ll want to escape in my secret places, and that’s where he attacks me best.

He’ll tempt me with my thoughts. With emotions too overbearing to carry, with worries too loud to drown out. He’ll seep into my thoughts I’ve always known existed but never acknowledged until he pulls me into the darkness.

What do you do when the enemy uses your mind against you?
Where do you run when the devil knows you cannot outrun yourself?
Where do you hide when it is your own ghosts that haunt you?

When we said we all have our demons, the devil used it literally, comedically uncomedic. How a ghost would whisper the thoughts of never belonging, and how I ingrained it after letting the thought linger for days on end. Because that is what happens when you float between crowds, never having a friend who stays for a long time. Or is it because I was the one who left — with changing seasons and drifting places, I never stayed long enough?

But no matter how short or how long the thoughts linger, the sun always sets, and the night comes. When the darkness makes an appearance, that’s when the shadows come out to play. A nightmare phenomenon, when the room is black with no light to cast a shadow, yet they still come and haunt my waking thoughts. The shadows creep over the walls, coming out into hiding, reminding me I will always belong in the darkness, and no clawing out can crawl my way out to the light. The devil knows better than I do: How I would be too tired to fight, because how many times has it been since I’ve begged for a way out, only to be sucked into my thoughts once again? How many nights have I begged for sleep to come, to only be tormented awake with the silenced screams of my thoughts? How do you fall asleep when the demons refuse to leave?

When the morning comes, they entrap me still. Longings of productivity and early mornings stay as that, longings and frustrated wishes. My body clings to the bed, refusing to leave. Do I refuse to come out to face the monsters in broad daylight, or do they entrap me within the four walls of the room? Maybe it is both, I do not know. But there is always regret in waking up. For waiting too long to get up, for waiting until the last minute to fight back. It is a terrible feeling with regret as the first emotion of the day. I wonder how the devil mastered its tricks, when he needn’t do much, nor do fancy and extravagant temptations, when one tap of the mind is more than enough for me to stumble.

But in the thoughts of succumbing, there is the sudden grasping of the hand. I open my eyes, and see the hands that hold me. Thoughts of worthlessness dissapate and the burdens of my back aren’t as heavy as I once had born with. He whispers words I’ve longed to hear, a comfort I’ve always wished to find, and only to realize home is where He is. His whispers drown out the screams of my thoughts, and His silence silences the noises in my head. There is light amid the darkness, and the walls of my home need not enclose my thoughts. The stars light up the night, and He directs me to the light of the stars instead of the ghosts that haunt my room. The shadows will remain as shadows, and the devil does know better. But now, I also know to simply keep my eyes on the One who has rescued me from my thoughts, whose hands I can call my home, and whose words I can believe in when the demons try to usurp my thoughts.

It is a fight, and the devil knows better. But this time, I know better too.

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Fayth Ong
Fayth Ong

Written by Fayth Ong

26 || Christian || Filipino-Chinese Teach. Write. Move. Explore. Your sun-kissed accident-prone creative curly daredevil.

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