Be Strong In the Lord

Mad at myself because I've been farting around on the internet. I just realized it's kind of funny too (in a sad way) because the devotion I read was about tearing down strongholds and everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. I guess maybe I've thought of that verse as referring to ideologies but it really could be anything that gets in the way of our relationship with Him. The stupid thing is that the stuff I'm looking at isn't even interesting for the most part. I've just been procrastinating on writing or doing anything productive. I've done quite a lot of sitting since finding out my cancer had spread to my spine in late January. Early on it was because we were worried about the fractures in my vertebrae. More recently it has been because of intermittent pain. I am not used to sitting around and I fell into the bad habit of spending (wasting) time on somewhat worthless surfing or TV watching. The frustrating thing is that I have always wanted to write and now that I had the opportunity, I wasn't using it. I have spent some time in these months writing down insights from the Bible, but I hadn't done anything substantial. This frustrated me too because my diagnosis reminded me that we are to redeem the time. None of us knows how long we have but when you're healthy it's easy to think you have lots of time. The Bible says that our lives are a vapor and that we need to make the most of our time. Anyway a while back I shared my frustration at the time wasting with some friends with whom I've been doing a Soul Care study. They encouraged me to start writing a blog. Right around the same time, a childhood friend who had recently lost her 25 year old daughter posted an article titled Powerful Advice from a Dying 24 Year Old. The last three words of the article were, "make it count." This had been a motto that my friend's daughter lived by during her illness. That article helped to spur me on in beginning this blog. I wrote last time about being alert to the devil's schemes. I think sometimes we feel that the devil's schemes are overt and we should be able to recognize them right away. However, the Bible says that the devil parades around as an angel of light. He will do his best to deceive us into selfishness, anger, calling our sin something else, and, in this case, idleness. His ways are subtle. If he can get us to justify our sin he will be able to drag us down. We don't have to allow this though. Ephesians 6:10-18 talks about putting on the full armor of God, being strong in HIS POWER, so we can stand against the devil's schemes. We are also reminded here that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Satan would like nothing more than to get us fighting with people instead of standing against him. Verses 13-18 state, "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.18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people." What are all these pieces of Spiritual armor? The belt of truth-Jesus said in John 17:17, "sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." In John 8:31 and 32 Jesus said, "if you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." Again, it is not just knowing the teachings of God but putting them into practice. The breastplate of righteousness: a breastplate is meant to protect our most vital organs, especially the heart. We are told in Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart,for everything you do flows from it." How do we do that? By keeping our focus on God and following Him, desiring to be changed and refined through our relationship with Him. Philippians 4:4-9 says, "4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace-the gospel is literally the good news that Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we could have peace with God. Our sin separates us from God, but we are reconciled to Him through the blood of Jesus. As the verses from Philippians 4 above state, He also gives us peace in our lives as we trust in Him and bring Him our concerns and focus on things that are pure and right and lovely. The shield of faith-Hebrews 11:1 says,"11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." It is trusting God and following Him step by step even when we can't see where we are going. It is knowing that, "He who promised is faithful."(Hebrews 10:23). It is stated in the description of the armor that we will be able to extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one with this shield of faith. The devil will do anything he can to shake our faith, but just as Jesus did in the wilderness, we can defeat him by reminding ourselves and him of the truth. We belong to God and He has already defeated Satan. The helmet of salvation-again, the sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection have bought us salvation from sin and have transferred us into His kingdom and assured us of everlasting life. The sword of the Spirit-it always comes back to the word of God. Jesus quoted God's word to the devil each time he tried to tempt Him in the wilderness. We need to immerse ourselves in the word. Satan will do his best to counterfeit God's word to us, just as he did to Eve in the garden. We need to really know the truth of the word so that when the father of lies tries to distort it, we will recognize it and refute it. The passage on the armor ends with an exhortation to pray in the Spirit on all occasions. We are not to live by our own strength but to acknowledge our own helplessness and our dependence on God. When I started writing this entry, I had only read a portion of the verses in 2 Corinthians 10 that referred to tearing down strongholds. It was after I started writing about the armor of God that I realized the other passage speaks of weapons. The passage reads, "4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."If we know Christ as Savior, the Bible says we have the same power available to us that raised Jesus from the dead. We don't need to walk around defeated and constantly struggling. We do need to employ the armor and the weapons, though. When thoughts come that are contrary to the word, we need to take them captive and make them obedient to Christ. Let's ask God to make us conscious of the devil's schemes and to help us to be strong in the Lord as we take our stand against them.