Spiritual warfare

And so I get over nine months behind in my blog. At that point, it's time to start discarding material and trying to fast forward to the present. There is one theme from the first six months of this year that I wanted to blog about though that keeps cropping up even today.

It's that of spiritual warfare. I actually started writing this blog several weeks ago, but when we talked about spiritual warfare recently I decided to finish this blog.

Ephesians 6:10-17

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² 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. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

I'll be honest: I hate cheesy metaphors. This definitely comes off as quite cheesy for me. This was one of those passages that I blew off as a child and teenager. I basically ignored the concept of spiritual warfare. Through reading some of the Christian author John Eldredge's books, I slowly began to accept the idea of spiritual warfare.

But it wasn't until this last year that the concept became a serious one to me. It seemed that whenever I was trying to promote a large event for Upper Room that could potentially have a huge impact, or even trying to just do my responsibilities, the most physically and emotionally draining things would happen. Stuff that I had never faced before and that made things quite difficult as I was trying to serve God. I was nearly blindsided by this and almost got derailed... but God got me through somehow.

That's why I take the concept of spiritual warfare seriously. Every day we have to remember who we are in Christ and be ready to fight what the devil does. I also remember to pray for protection for myself and for those around me, both physically and spiritually. And finally I remember the following verse.

1 John 4:4

⁴ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.