SPIRITUAL SELF DEFENSE 101

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

James 4:7-8

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Every day, we are engaged in a war whether we believe it or not. In fact, this war has raged on so long in most of our lives that we have normalized it in many ways. We’re numb to the ongoing assault we go through day after day after day.

The Apostle Paul was very wary of this spiritual battle happening within himself, so much so that he wrote these words of testimony:

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.”

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  Romans 7:15-25

Paul, like the majority of most people, longed to be good and do good things. He wished to live right and righteously before God. But Satan doesn’t want this to happen. Rather, he works against God to produce wickedness and sinful behavior. Thus the tug of war between the flesh and the Spirit.

So what are we to do? How are we to defend ourselves when we are engaged in spiritual warfare daily?

Maybe we should go back and see what Paul discovered. What strategy did he employ?

Well, as we see in the following verses from Ephesians, chapter 6, Paul shows us that in order to ward off the attacks of Satan, we need to prepare ourselves spiritually and he uses the battle armor a soldier might put on to explain what every person needs to do. Look at his words here:

“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.” Ephesians 6:11-18

In eight verses, Paul gives us a primer in Spiritual Warfare 101, providing instruction so we can ward off Satan’s attacks. We find additional guidance in our verses from the fourth chapter of James’ epistle. He writes:

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”  James 4:7-8

James exhorts us to submit to God and this submission should lead us to purify our hearts, turn from sin, and put on our full armor. Fully surrendering ourselves to the Lord will allow us to resist the devil, and when he sees a believer is well defended and protected, he will flee because he stands no chance against anyone who is near to God. After all, there are plenty of other people who have not donned their armor and placed full trust in God who Satan can attack and do so with great success.

Do you want to ward off the advances of the devil in your life?

Follow the Bible’s guidance and put spiritual self defense 101 into practice. For God’s word gives us all we need to know in order to defend ourselves against our enemy, the devil, and keep ourselves from falling prey to his evil schemes. All we have to do is follow the Lord’s guidance for if we do, we can proclaim the same words Paul used:

“Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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