Thought for the day: Paul wrote in Ephesians, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Reference Ephesians 6:10-13 [NKJV])
It’s important to remember and remind ourselves constantly, that we are truly in a battle field that the enemy we are fighting, we are not able to see. It’s easier for us to try to win a battle or war, when we are able to identify our enemy.
What Paul reminds us of here, the enemy is not that person in front of us making accusations or cursing us out. The enemy is the spirit behind these things. He’s also reminding us that we have the most powerful tool available for us to “do battle”, it’s Prayer.
It’s not easy for us to resort to prayer first, especially when we are in the midst of the battle. Our instincts are that we want to “fight back”, we want to bring accusations, or curse back. We have to train ourselves for the battle.
It’s like being in a “Spiritual Boot Camp”. For those of us who have served, we understand that “Boot Camp” is hard, it is something that is used to break down our ideology of how to fight, and then, to build us up to be better prepared for battle. In the “Spiritual Boot Camp”, God is ripping away our flesh reactions, and helping us to be better prepared for the “Spiritual Battle”. Differently put, training us to hit our knees/faces first, instead of reacting in our flesh and then praying later.
Let’s work on seeking Him in all situations today and continue to bring Him honor in all areas of our lives.