Spiritual Warfare

Now here’s a topic that is certain to raise some eyebrows.  Bring up the subject in mixed company, and the unbeliever thinks you’re ready to be checked into the nuthouse, and many who claim to know Jesus will think that you’re one of those fanatical fringe characters. 

Let me attempt to begin a conversation that I believe to be balanced and in line with what the Bible teaches.

The other day I was talking with a friend who just happened to mention that the spiritual warfare had been intense in her life lately.  I probed just a little bit, maybe because I’m nosy, and asked her what she meant…in what way was that manifesting in her life?  She described some thoughts of doubt, insecurity, and loneliness that have been issues of the past, but are also places that the Lord has ministered and brought healing to.  But recently there have been some of the same old struggles.

I thought for a minute, and I said, “Yeah, the battle is in the mind, huh.”  And that was it.  End of subject.

But as the evening wore on, I was having this running conversation with myself, and with God, about that battle in the mind…particularly in my own mind.  I realized that I had been mentally lazy lately,  allowing some of those old thoughts that rise out of those places that were wounded, but were healed by the Lord Jesus, to return and settle in my mind…where I could look at them and think about them.  Of course, feeling and emotion accompanies the looking and thinking.

How easy it is to just lie down and let those emotions run over us.  I think that’s why the Apostle Paul told us to take every thought captive.  (2 Corinthians 10:5)  When the voice in our head is telling us that we are all alone, will always be alone, that nobody loves us, that things will never work out…it’s our choice to meditate on that voice, or to meditate on God’s Word. 

The decision to resist the negative voice and go to His Word is spiritual warfare, my friends.  “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1 Peter 5:6-9)

To rely on and trust in God’s Word is to humble ourselves before Him.  When you embrace your anxieties, you are not only meditating upon the picture the devil has put in your mind, but you are saying to God “I’ve got it all under control.”  That is pride.  It’s also giving in to the devil’s plan for your life.

We become what we think about.  The Apostles Peter and Paul were evidently concerned with this.  Peter wrote about wholesome thinking:  “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you.  I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.”

What sort of thoughts occupy your mind?  Wholesome ones?  Or ones that make you feel like giving up?  As 1 Peter 5 says, let self-control and alertness characterize your life, paying attention to your thoughts.

I urge you to choose life, and to fill your mind with God’s Word.  Go to Psalms, Proverbs, and the glorious words of the New Testament.  When a verse jumps off the page at you, write it down and carry it with you throughout your week, and think about it often.  Memorize it.  And live it. 

This is spiritual warfare…choosing life, instead of death.