Recognizing the Battles We Face

“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 Lord’s people.” (Ephesians 6:10-18 NIV)

Just within 10 days of school starting, there are roommate issues, people are discouraged, and students are already feeling stress. Spiritual warfare, anyone?

Some will probably scoff that these are anything other than the typical problems of college life, but I would argue that is just another scheme of the devil—to deceive us into ignoring his work behind the scenes.  Paul is clear that our struggle in this life is not against “flesh and blood,” that which we can easily see and understand, but rather against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” and the dark powers of this world that are influenced by them.  The problem with ignoring the source of many of the things we face is we will attempt to apply the wrong remedy.  Like when one gets a splinter and the area becomes infected.  If you merely treat the infection, the source of the infection, the splinter, will remain.  But if you remove the splinter and treat the infection, the treatment will be successful.

In our world, people often ignore the deeper causes of things.  People easily get stressed by the demands of school or work, or just by how current circumstances in their lives are going to work out.  However, Jesus tells us not to worry about the things of our lives (Matthew 6:25-34). Thus, this becomes a spiritual battleground.  The devil wants to draw us into thinking and believing we cannot trust God and His promises to provide for our needs.  In other words, to worry.  Paul, however, is calling us to engage in spiritual battle by taking up “the shield of faith” to extinguish the enemy’s “flaming arrow” of worry.  

The same can be applied to the other issues we face in life.  They are spiritual battlegrounds and God has given the weapons with which to fight them.  

Today, consider what is going on in your life.  Are the things you’re facing perhaps not just mere struggles, but instead spiritual battles?  If so, there are weapons available to you to use and now would be a good time to grab hold of them.  

© Jim Musser 2017