“Do not be discouraged” — Father Moon, 1979. The instruction is pointed: stop letting Satan define you through failures.
The mechanism: Accusation shrinks identity to worst actions. If believed, you become your worst self. The cycle has a name in spiritual formation: the accuser (the literal meaning of “Satan”) specializes in this work.
God’s counteraction: He dwells on successes. He casts sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19). He rejoices over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). This is not sentimental — it’s God’s method of identity formation, which is the opposite of Satan’s.
The first fallen nature is “losing God’s viewpoint.” Not losing God’s law, not losing God’s favor — losing the perspective through which God sees you. Restoration starts there. Fix the viewpoint; the behavior follows. Try to fix the behavior while maintaining a wrong viewpoint = futility.
Distinction: Accusation is different from correction. Correction has a path forward — here’s what you did, here’s why it was wrong, here’s how to change. Accusation just condemns. Satan accuses; God corrects.
This is why how you speak to yourself (and others) about failures matters. “I’m a bad person” vs. “I made a bad choice and here’s what I’ll do differently” — one is accusation, one is correction.