Christians have volunteered to be fighting warriors in the army of God. God has armed His soldiers for the greatest battle of a life time. Eph. 6:10-17 explains that God’s people, Christians, are in a spiritual warfare against “mighty powers of darkness”. We don’t really understand all this entails, but we know that no warfare is pleasant. There are winners and losers. It’s so easy to forget that we are not fighting against human beings, but against evil that doesn’t want God to accomplish His goal and that doesn’t want people to be happy.
How does this happen? What kinds of tactics are used in this battle? Below are just a few.
- Self-talk: When we look at ourselves and put ourselves down because we use measurements created by the world’s standards and not by the One that formed us; we are slowly destroying the inner woman. When we use such words to describe ourselves like: ugly, dumb, stupid, fat, skinny or any other imagine damaging terms, do we think of the source of these ideas? I have yet to find God describing His greatest creation in such a way. Some of the words God uses are holy (1 Cor. 1:2), peacemakers (Matt. 5:9), peculiar people (1 Peter 2:9), and saints (Heb. 10: 10) to indicate our role in this world. If God, Our Maker and Father, loves us in such a light, then what should we say about ourselves?
- Isolation: When we go through difficult times in our lives we feel as though we are alone. This a great tactic that is used by God’s enemy to interrupt the relationship between man and God. How many times do we go through a valley in our lives with feelings of despair? Is this what our loving Father wants for His children? Or does the enemy rejoice when this happens? In studying the word we see that God has provided things like love, the church, prayer, worship, and the Bible to assist us during these difficulties. All of these gifts, and so much more, are tied together with the loving sacrifice of Jesus. One reason Jesus died for us was so that we wouldn’t need to feel isolated. These gifts are available by our loving and gracious and merciful Father. Are we using them to bring us closer to Him and one another?
- Our past: Life is full is twists and turns, peaks and valleys. Many times we are overcome by sin and our minds constantly remember low times in our lives. We might ask, “How can God/Jesus love me because I was once involved in a life full of sin?” Mercy and forgiveness are irreplaceable characteristics of the Christ we serve. We have to learn to live beyond the sin in our lives. Once we have repented and turned our life around, we are in a right relationship with Jesus again. Look at the way Jesus interacted with the woman at the well. In John 4:1-26, Jesus encounter a woman that society had rejected because of some of the choices she had made. Jesus did not hide the fact that He knew about the husbands she had or the man she was living with. He told her the truth about her life, but He did not hold it against her. He did not ask her to explain her past. He did not condemn her on her sinful life. He took her from where she was and led her to the Truth and True One. Is this something that we do in our own lives and in the lives of our fellow sisters? Or do we keep resurrecting the past sins and try and explain them and justify them to ourselves and others? Do we sometimes forget that we are daughters of a forgiving and merciful Father?
Self-talk, isolation, and our past are just some of the tactics that are used in the spiritual warfare. Sometimes we are tired soldiers in this Godly battle. But let’s not give up. We have been equipped for fighting and we, as Christians, are on the winning side. Like any other battle, we are against a powerful foe. But unlike many wars we have a more powerful Leader, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus. We have the greatest troops fighting this battle alongside each one of us. I urge each Christian solider to use all of the war instruments available and fight the mighty fight because in the end we are victors! Praise God!
Cynthia Evans