This Is War

The last year has been a reminder to me that living for Christ means we are in a constant war...a spiritual war. We can easily forget as we go about our daily lives that we have an enemy whose main goal is to "kill, steal, and destroy." This enemy will do everything in his power to inhibit and destroy the kingdom of God. As Christians we know and he knows that he cannot take away our salvation. When we accept Christ as our Savior, we are assured eternal life with Him. However, Satan can keep us from bringing others into the kingdom of God.

The Bible tells us that Satan is the "father of lies", and I believe one of the biggest ways Satan inhibits the Kingdom from growing is by telling Christians little lies that distract us from the work God has for us. For women, especially, he whispers to us lies about ourselves. If we listen to these lies and start to believe them, we can easily begin to focus on what is wrong with us.  This keeps us distracted from walking in and sharing God's truth with others. The only way we can combat these lies is with the Word of God. 2 Corinthians 2:3-5 says, " for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience if Christ." We have to know what God says about us if we are going to "cast down" the lies Satan tells us about ourselves.  If we know, believe, and speak the truth when Satan attacks, his chances of pulling us down and away from God are gone.  I have found that it can be very difficult to overcome the lies Satan tells us.  He starts with something small and believable, and as we begin to believe those small lies, he continues feeding us more and bigger lies until we realize that what we are believing about ourselves is not even close to how the Bible says God sees us. This is what happened in my own life, and I have found it to be a long process of learning to meditate on the truth daily. 

I wasn't really sure where I was going with this post when I first started writing, but I did feel that we needed to be reminded that we do have a real enemy, and we are surrounded by constant spiritual war. God's Word is our weapon in this war.  Let me also remind you that Jesus says in John 16 :33 says "In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." We will have trouble, and we will face battles, but Jesus has already overcome the world, and if we call Him our Savior, we will one day live with Him in perfect peace.  That is exciting to me!