Spiritual Warfare

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood..."  How easy it is for us to get caught up in fighting against the person we see standing in front of us that is causing us so much grief.  At least it is for me.  Here I am motivated and on fire for the Lord and here comes someone working overtime to try to steal my joy.  The sad part about it is, often times, I let him or her.  I forget that my fight is not with her but with Satan who doesn't want to see me living an abundant, stress-free life.  He would instead like to see me in constant conflict with my brother or my sister over things that at the end of the day don't matter and cause me to take my focus off God.  It's spiritual warfare y'all!

I can usually deal pretty well with storms that deal with health, finances, employment but conflicts with people I don't do as well with. My thoughts are if I am not bothering you then why are you bothering me.  I am not going to use today to talk about all the reasons why people start conflict with someone else.  Most of the time the underlying reason is jealousy.  Christians should realize that God has enough blessings for everyone.  The other part to that is 'be careful about wishing you had someone else's life because you never know what God had to take them through to get it'.  You also may not want to do the work to maintain it. And when I talk about work, I am talking about how you have to be in constant communion with God, working those knee pads overtime and staying in His Word.  

So how do we combat spiritual warfare?  With the sword of the spirit...which is the Word of God.  You have to read the word.  It's also beneficial to pray to Word of God.  When you pray the Word you don't have to worry about your prayers being in conflict with the will of God.  You also have to rely on the wisdom revealed by the Holy Spirit who helps to guide us into all truth.  The Spirit which helps us to see our attack for what it is....Satan.  If the devil can get you so wrapped up in fighting with someone then you are not living your life to glorify God and it appears that Satan has won. But as Christians we know better than that. God is victorious and the devil has been defeated. Yet here we are once again not living the victorious life that God has set out for us. We must recognize the devil's tactics.  He specializes in trickery and deception.  And we must see it from both sides.  He is not just bringing others up against you. He also wants to use you against someone else.  (How many times I have fallen into this trap and helped the devil with his handiwork.)  All because I was too busy looking at Sally Sue or Jim Bob.  Christians we must put on the whole armor of God.  Daily you must put on your belt of truth, your breastplate of righteousness and have you feet shod with the preparation of peace.  And when it's time for that hand-to-hand combat, when the actual fighting takes place, you must remember to pick up your sword.  Now I am one of those people who carry my Bible Promise Book in my purse, but most of us don't carry a Bible around with us all the time.  That is why it must be hidden in your heart.  How many of us still memorize scripture?  The Word is definitely better than any song lyric you will ever memorize.  Do you know how much more prepared you would be for Satan's attacks if you committed one verse of scripture to memory a week?  It can be done. 

As a child of God you must Realize that Satan's attacks are inevitable.  Part of our jobs as Christians is to Recognize these attacks are part of spiritual warfare.  Instead of Retaliation we much use the Revelation of God's Word to stand firm and fight against these attacks.  For although we live in the world, we do not fight a worldly war. 

Dear Lord,

Thank you for the revelation of Your Word.  It is so wonderful to read Your Word and understand it.  I enjoy being at a place of peace knowing that all things will work out for my good.  Lord I am coming to You today asking you to create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.  I have become distracted by what I see in front of me and because of the conflict I have taken my eyes off You.  Thank you for showing me that there is a war going on but the devil has already been defeated.  I am making a promise to You today to commit more of your Word to memory so that I am always prepared for battle.  I realize the more I work to be more like You that Satan is going to come up against me.  Thank you for providing me with the weapons necessary for combat.  Thank you for your Holy Spirit that dwells within me and reminds me daily of what you desire for my life and how I should behave as a child of the King.  It's so good to know that You didn't leave me out here by myself. I am eternally grateful.  In Jesus' Most Wonderful Name I pray Amen.