Let's Go To War

Lately, it feels like I am covered in thick humidity…the South Georgia kind of humidity…thick and heavy and hard to move through. I struggle to pray and spend time sitting in God’s presence these days. I really have to force myself to push through the heaviness covering me. It is the strangest thing. And once I do push through and begin to pray or read scripture, my mind goes crazy. At any given moment, my mind is in a million different places. It is very frustrating, and I don’t know why it is happening or what is causing it.

Or maybe I do…

We just wrapped up our Get Your Life Back series where we talked about how overwhelming life has felt this past year. We were reminded that we need to make time to pause throughout our day to reconnect with God. We were reminded of the healing powers of nature and the outdoors. We were reminded that it is okay, and in fact necessary, to unplug sometimes if we want to truly refresh our souls. We were not only given permission, but encouraged to visit those dark, lonely places in our soul where the pain and shame of the past still reside to allow God’s light and love to come in and heal what remains broken. We were encouraged to take our faith one step further by moving beyond the faith-obedience-service model of Christianity that is so pervasive today.

I have spent the last six weeks being reminded of ways to refresh and renew my soul and encouraged to seek union with my Creator by putting these things into practice each day, and I have been actively seeking to do just that. It appears as if I may have upset someone who would love nothing more than for me to remain stationary in my faith.

When I decided to accept the call to follow Christ, I accepted my call to war. Scripture is clear on the presence of evil on earth. We are told multiple times throughout the New Testament that we are at war with the spiritual forces of darkness on this earth (Ephesians 6:10-12, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, 1 Peter 5:8-9, Romans 8:37-39, John 10:10, 1 Corinthians 10:13, John 16:33 just to name a few). Every day is a battle, whether we are actively participating in the fight or not.

Let’s focus on John 10:10 for a minute. What does this verse tell us about the goal of our enemy? His goal is to steal, kill, and destroy. And what exactly is it that he is trying to steal, kill, and destroy? I am no Bible expert, but I believe that our enemy wants nothing more than to steal our joy and peace, kill our faith, and destroy our relationship with God. Think about it. If he can do those things in my life, he won’t have to worry about me going around spreading the gospel or living my life in a way that is attractive to those who don’t know Jesus. If he can do those things in my life, he can prevent me from being a true disciple of Jesus.

Now do you honestly think that when I decide to actively pursue more union with God in my daily life, the enemy is just going to sit back and do nothing about that? Of course not! I have become public enemy number one in his eyes over the past six weeks, I’m sure. And if any of you reading this have also been trying to put what we have been talking about in this series into practice, you have too.

Let’s jump over to Ephesians 6:10-18. Paul gives us instructions here on how to protect ourselves from the enemy and the darkness of this world. Paul’s description here is one of a soldier getting ready to go into battle. He instructs us to put on the full armor of God every day, from the helmet of salvation to the shoes of the Gospel of peace. Here’s the deal guys, you either suit up every morning, or you get beat up and left for dead every day. The war doesn’t stop just because you don’t feel like preparing yourself for battle on any given day.

The good news is that Jesus has already won the war for our souls. Once we decide to accept the call to follow Christ, we are guaranteed eternity with Him in heaven. So why would we bother fighting this battle while we are here on earth? Because God sent His Son to earth to live and die in our place so that we could experience a rich, full, abundant life here on earth (John 10:10). We don’t have to wait until we get to heaven to experience an amazing life of freedom in Christ. We can have that right now, and God meant for us to have it right now, but we have to go to battle for it every day.

That is why the Get Your Life Back series is so important. We need to be reminded that union with God is possible and was meant for us to have all along. We need to be reminded of ways to refresh and renew our souls so that we can live the rich, abundant life that we have been promised here on earth. It is worth the fight my friends. We don’t have to wait for eternity to experience union with God. We don’t have to wait until our bodies pass away here on earth to experience a rich and satisfying life with Jesus. We can have it now, but we must be willing to suit up and go to war each day.

Here is the best news…God will always be on our side in our daily battles. He is standing at the ready anxiously awaiting our call for Him to help. Scripture says so. Matthew 7:7-8 tells us that all we have to do is ask, seek, and knock, and God will be there ready to give us what we need, show us what we need to see, and open the door for us. All we have to do is ask. I know that sounds too simple, but Ephesians 6:18 confirms that this is true. We are commanded in this verse to pray in the Spirit at all times with all kinds of prayers and requests, and to keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. God wants us to pray all the time. And what is prayer? Prayer is us coming before God, bringing our needs and requests to Him on behalf of ourselves as well as our fellow believers. Ask. Seek. Knock. I promise you it really is that simple. Try it and see.