True Life Challenge: Fight The Battle

As Christians we often forget we are at war! Not the kind of war that require guns and ammo, a spiritual war that goes on all around us every day. If we are prepared, we can fight this war and be victorious. If we are unprepared we often fall prey to the powers of this world and walk through our Christian life defeated and hopeless.

Fighting this battle we need to realize there are enemies. The three main areas I see we battle with every day are:

• The Flesh
• The World
• Satan

We know that the Bible talks about the outcome we have in our life if we give into any of these enemies. The works of the flesh are found in Galatians 5:19-21. They include sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. As empowered believers we are to put to death the things of the flesh (Col 3:5). Putting the things of the flesh to death is a pretty strong term... It doesn't mean ignore them and they will go away. When we put things in our life that are stumbling blocks to death it takes war on our part.

When we give into the things of the world we are giving into our desires apart from God.
1Jn 2:15-16 tells us: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world. This means lover's of the world would rather do the things they desire rather than knowing the things of God and desiring what He desires.

The third battle is against Satan and evil forces. Yes, they are real and they do exist. The Bible makes it clear, however we sometimes ignore the power of evil all around us. James tells us that fighting the enemy of evil is not a difficult task. (Jas 4:7) Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Jesus defeated Satan at the cross and the power of the resurrection. Satan can only affect the lives of you and me if we allow him too. Resist him, and tell him to leave!

So, how do we fight these areas of our life and claim victory in this war? We flee from evil desires (2Tim 2:22). We flee from sexual immorality (1Cor 6:18). We submit our lives to God (Jam 4:7). And we pursue the things of God by setting our minds on things above (Col 3:2). We become transformed by the renewing of our mind (Rom 12:2).

The battle we are in takes discipline just like a qualified soldier. We put on the armor of God (Eph 6:13-18) and we seal the battle with prayer. Resisting the things of the world, our fleshly desires and the darts from the evil one is a full time endeavor. We must be connected to God daily and prayerful always to fight the sins and attacks that come our way.

Blessings to you as you find peace in Him.
Keith