“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 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. (Ephesians 6: 10-13)
Spiritual warfare. Science fiction or real-life concern? While the name may seem to signify that there is alien life invading our brains, it really means that there is a real battle waged against believers in Christ daily. If you believe in God and believe in Heaven then logically you must also believe in the opposite, hell and the Devil himself.
This past week at Flood Church, we have been discussing spiritual warfare in depth. The ins and outs, the hows and whys of the whole thing. And it has been eye-opening. In our Christian culture, we have a way of thinking that includes this: “Since I believe in Jesus, my life should be easier than the lives of people who don’t believe.” False. When we accept Christ, our lives become exponentially more difficult, but with purpose. Which makes it all worthwhile. Would you give up a life or so-so, hum-drum for a life of extremes? A life that includes the greatest joy you have ever known, but also a battle with the most extreme evil? Yes. I would. The adventure of following Christ is part of the joy. You can’t know true happiness without experiencing suffering.
Francis Chan talks a lot about this in his book Crazy Love.
“Most of us know that we are supposed to love and fear God; that we are supposed to read our Bibles and pray so that we can get to know Him better; that we are supposed to worship Him with our lives. But actually living it out is challenging. It confuses us when loving God is hard. Shouldn’t it be easy to love a God so wonderful?When we love God because we feel we should love
Him, instead of genuinely loving out of our true selves, we have forgotten
who God really is.”
Loving God and following Him are difficult concepts even when things are good. But what about when things go bad? It becomes that much harder. That’s spiritual warfare. The devil isn’t all-knowing like God becuase he isn’t God. But he’s crafty, deceiving and attentive. Like it says in Ephesians, he schemes. If he can get us to focus on something other than loving God, or throw something in our way to make us doubt God, he’s that much closer to his own goal. To get us to love what he stands for, worldly treasures.
But luckily, God has given us every single thing we need to fight these schemes. He has given us armor that will withstand any attack. But our armor does not good if its sitting on the shelf. What would happen if a soldier went into combat without a helmet, a bulletproof vest, and a gun? Without camouflage and without shoes?! He wouldn’t be an effective soldier. And when he lost his battle everyone would wonder, “Why wasn’t he better prepared? He has everything he needs. Why wasn’t he wearing it?” This is exactly how we are with God. We have been instructed to “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.” (Ephesians 6:14-17)
Are you wearing your armor? Together let’s fight evil and love God with everything we have.
In His love,
Stacey
My Daily Verse 
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