It's A Battle

This week at our woman's Bible study we studied one of the most familiar passages in all of Scripture, the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). In this short little passage we as believers are commanded to daily put on the "Armor" of the Lord because of a spiritual battle that we face. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not there is a very active war going on in the spiritual realm, a battle we cannot see with our eyes but that we can see evidenced in the world. This battle is one that will not end until the day Jesus Christ comes and finishes what has been started and therefore we mustn't take Paul's exhortation here in Ephesians 6 lightly. Take a look at the passage:

Ephesians 6:10-18

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Our life as Christians is anything but easy. The battle we face daily is something that goes on internally between our spirit and our flesh and is only enticed even more by the evil powers of this world. We often fail to realize the power the enemy has. Looking back in Genesis and the power he had to deceive perfect people into disobedience evidences this very thing. He is powerful, strong, and on the attack. In fact in 1 Peter 5:8 we see him depicted as on the hunt, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Now although Satan himself won't be showing up at your front door step, his schemes, his plans, his demons, and his ways will be consistently seeking to pervert your pursuit of holiness and your effectiveness for the kingdom. I once heard that once Satan knows he doesn't have you on his team, his only goal is to make you ineffective. And the more effective you are for the kingdom the more his fiery darts will come. The battle comes in different shapes and forms but it seeks to corrupt your character as a believer, pervert Scripture and distort the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Knowing that this battle is real, happening right now as you read this, the question becomes well then what? How do I fight? How do I stay prepared and on the offensive as opposed to the defensive?

Today as we read in Ephesians it struck me that as believers we are already fully equipped, fully armed. The armor of the Lord is essentially the character of the Christian. It is by His strength that we fight and gain victory. The question is do we use the armor we have? Are we being faithful to become more familiar with how to use it? If you knew you were going to battle in a foreign country and had a list of things that would enable you to succeed and gain victory I guarantee you would study them; the same goes for us in battle against the enemy, we need to study the WORD so that we can be better equipped, stronger so to speak, in the battle.

Christ has already won the victory and therefore we have a commander in chief who has given us the plans we need to succeed (in the Word). That is so encouraging to think about. As much as we need to be in the Word, we need to be in constant prayer! Piper calls prayer our "wartime walkie talkie", do we use it? Are we daily on our knees asking God to help us fight this battle or do we try and do it in our own strength? If we are fighting on our own we are bound to fail for this battle as Paul noted is not one of flesh and blood. We must fight in His power and in His ways!

The battle wages on and the more we are aware of it the more we can see it in this world and in our own hearts and lives; but on the flip side this should give us the motivation we need to pursue holiness, to fight with HIs strength, and to joy in the hope of what will happen in the end!