Continual Battle

What is your situational awareness? Are you paying attention to all that is going on around you? Do you see and understand what is going on behind the scenes? Do you see through the fog of busyness the root of all the negativeness?

My observance of the human race is we are caught up in ourselves. We only see what is right in front of us, and only the surface. Our perspectives are limited by our shortsightedness. It is limited by our selfishness. We only care about the next ten minutes.

We are fooled by our enemy. Not the person we are at odds with, but our real enemy. The devil is continually looking to trip us up. He desires nothing more than to see us fail. Not in the traditional sense, but in a spiritual and mental sense. Oh, he’ll take the physical failure as well. But his true desire is to pull us away from God.

The failure doesn’t happen in just a moment. He chips away one small chip at a time. He entices us to think everyone is against us. He pulls us away from what we know is right. He whispers lies in our heads. He causes us to think highly of ourselves and offend others. He uses the smallest of things to plant doubt in our minds.

As Peter states in today’s passage, we are to be alert. This means we must be on guard, looking for the devil’s attacks. We are to realize we are living in a continual war. Our souls are at stake. No, it’s not a game, it is very real. He goes on to say we are to be of sober mind. Though it does mean we are not to be drunk, it also means we are to think clearly and critically. We are to look at the situation from every angle we can think of and ask God for guidance. We must realize almost nothing is what it seems at first glance or on the surface.

When we ask what is going on behind the scenes, we can be assured of one thing—if it is evil, the devil is behind it. When we are being persecuted, the devil is behind it. When bad things happen to those who believe in Jesus, the devil is behind it. He continually prowls around looking for ways to tempt us, trap us, and cause us to stumble. He wants us to feel guilty and ashamed. He wants us to be angry for any reason. He wants to pull us away from our good relationship with God.

I pray we all realize who is the root of all evil. I pray we recognize we are in a continual battle. I pray each one of us thinks critically through every situation and remain alert for the devil’s attacks. Be alert. Think critically. Stand firm in your faith. Know that God is always with you. Resist the devil. Know you are not alone.

1 Peter 5:8-9 Be alert and of sober mind. 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 the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

The Devil’s Foothold

How do you react when you are angry? What thoughts run through your head? Are you ready to lash out at whatever or whoever is in the immediate vicinity? Do you know it is the devil who is prompting your behavior?

We all get angry from time-to-time. Someone wrongs us and we want to lash out. Something goes badly, we are running late, or we lose out on an opportunity. There are a multitude of reasons for our growing angry.

We’ve all been there. Anger hits and we want to punch the wall. Our girlfriend or boyfriend dumps us. Our team loses the big game, perhaps on a blown officiating call. Our vehicle has a flat tire in the rain. We’re running late to get to work, we get behind a slow-moving vehicle, and hit every red light along the way. We can all add many more reasons for our anger to flare up. Sometimes it gets to the point we simply want to curl up in the fetal position and cry.

If we are observing someone’s behavior when they are angry, our thoughts are predictable. We don’t want to be that person. We don’t want to get in their way. We think they should grow up and stop acting childish. We compare their actions to a two-year old’s temper tantrum.

Where does our anger get us? Nowhere good. Others think less of us when we react foolishly. Our friends either walk away from us or want to. We may drag others into our anger, making them angry and reacting badly toward us. Later, we feel guilty and ashamed.

How do we rid ourselves of such foolish behavior? First, we need to know where it is coming from. Sure, we can point to whatever or whomever we think caused us to be angry. But that isn’t where our reaction came from. Our negative reaction came from the devil. When we react badly out of anger, we have lost to the devil. He has won another battle.

When we feel anger coming on, we must train ourselves to stop. We need to assess the situation for what it is. No one single thing we may experience will cause the world to come to an end. Our next step is to pray that God give us the proper perspective.

If we’re running late, tomorrow we need to get up earlier or get moving sooner after we get up. If our team loses, we can look forward to the next game or next season. If we just lost a relationship, take time to heal and know there will be another one. Whatever the reason, the world will continue to spin and there will be another day. Look forward, not backward.

I pray we all reach out to God in times of anger. I pray we train ourselves to stop the negative reactionary behavior. I pray each one of us realizes it is the devil who is causing us to act childish. Defeat the devil. Win the battle over anger. Pray for God to intervene. Stop the madness. Don’t give the devil a foothold.

Ephesians 4:26-27 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Stolen Word

What happens when something of value has been taken from you? Do you get upset? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to get it back? What if it was the most valuable thing you can imagine? What if it is the Word of God?

Sometimes things are taken from us. Sometimes things are stolen from us. It may be something very small and inconsequential. We may shrug it off and go on. But if it is something of great value, it can have a very profound effect on us.

If you have ever had something stolen from you, you know how it can make you feel. It is especially impactful if our vehicle or home is broken into. We feel like we have been violated. We may even feel dirty or shameful that something like that happened to us.

Back the last question posed above. What if it is the Word of God? In the parable Jesus is teaching, He explains the devil can and does steal the Word of God from people. These are people who hear the Word, but it is snatched away from them before it can sprout or take hold. This is not talking about the person who has heard the Word for years, attended church for years, and slowly fell away. This is the person who may be a friend you talk to about Jesus, but it never seems to sink in. Satan comes along and steals it away before they can even think about it.

Is there anything you can do about it? Yes! You can continue to tell them about Jesus. You can persevere in your mission, continually bringing up Jesus, telling them how He has worked in your life. You can use different approaches. Quote Scripture. Tell them how your life changed. Talk about the joy you have now that you didn’t have before. Relate a story of stress and how Jesus helped you overcome the situation. Use whatever examples you can from your life. You never know which one may break through and sink in.

The devil is an enemy of God. He is an enemy of ours. His desire is to keep us from growing close to God. The earlier in the process he can do that, by stealing the Word away before it can take hold, the easier his job is. The only way we can overcome him is through prayer and perseverance.

I pray we all commit to persevering. I pray we lean on God for the strength we need to persevere. I pray we continually look for ways to break through to the lost. Persevere in Christ. Ask God for the strength you need. Ask God to guide you. Listen for the Holy Spirit.

Luke 8:11-12 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

Evil Motives

Are you adhering to the wisdom of this world? Do you follow the crowd when it comes to gaining understanding? Is your desire for wisdom selfish ambition? Have you considered where your desire for wisdom is coming from?

Most of us desire to know more. We want to learn new things, understand more, and ultimately gain wisdom. The gaining of knowledge and wisdom can be generated from either good or bad motives.

If our desire to gain knowledge and wisdom is out of selfish ambition, it is evil. That may sound harsh. You may ask, “What’s wrong with trying to better myself?” The wrong comes from the genesis of our pursuit. When we study and strive for wisdom for personal gain, we are being selfish. If our goal is to simply to make more money to buy more stuff, we are being selfish. Hording knowledge to get ahead of someone else is a result of envy and selfishness. These reasons are evil. In other words, we have fallen prey to the devil’s tricks and traps. We have allowed him to misguide us.

On the other hand, if our desire for knowledge and wisdom is to serve others, better know God, understand what others are going through and show mercy, and to bring peace to this world, our desire is coming from God. Our reason for acquiring education and information is the indicator of where it comes from.

When we get to the root of it, there are only two possibilities for our desire—good or evil. Good can only come from God. Evil comes from the devil. We can state many reasons. We can fool ourselves. But as we dive deeper into the reason and get to the bottom of it, we are acting out of the good in our heart or evil desires.

We don’t like thinking in these terms. We like to think there is a large swath of reasons and decisions in this life that have nothing to do with good or evil. Unfortunately, that is also a trick the devil uses to keep us from being fully committed to God. Every decision, every choice, and even every word comes down to being generated out of good or evil.

I pray we all spend time evaluating our hearts. I pray we look deeply into why we chase after knowledge and wisdom. I pray each one of us will start seeing each decision and choice is based on good or evil. Choose good. Choose the wisdom of God. Ask God to guide you every moment of the day. Ask God to reveal your motives.

James 3:14-16 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

Untangling Opponents

How often do you face opponents? How do you approach an opponent? Do you look to annihilate them? Does it depend on what kind of opposition it is? Do you know there is instruction provided for handling opponents?

As we go through life, especially as we make our following of Jesus known, we will face people who oppose us. They will attempt to trip us up, knock us down, make us look like a fool, and generally thwart our plans.

There are people in this world that want nothing to do with religion. Of course, that is part of the problem. They have a bad attitude toward organized religion, which has given God a bad reputation in some cases. Our instruction from the Bible is not to convince someone to follow an organized religion, but to follow Jesus Christ. As we face people who don’t want to talk about church, we should not be offended, rather we should talk about Jesus. Notice the small “c” rather than the capital “C” in that sentence. The capital “C” Church is Christ’s Church, which is His body of believers who follow His commands, not simply man’s tradition.

Paul’s instruction to Timothy is to gently approach the person who opposes God. I can imagine this being like approaching a horse that has gotten tangled in barbed wire. You must keep the horse calm, talking to it in a soothing voice. Gently untangling the wire one strand at a time. You can’t rush in expecting to release the horse in just a few moments. It takes time. You must assess the situation, identify all the tangles, develop a plan to remove them one at a time, all while keeping the horse calm knowing it will continue to try to get up from time-to-time.

Untangling the resistance of a person who opposes God is not a fast process. It may require us to ask many questions over several conversations before we can begin to address the tangles. We must be patient and understanding. We must keep our goal of bringing them to Jesus, saving them from destruction in the forefront of our mind. We will likely get frustrated and need to take a break while praying God grants us patience and wisdom to continue untangling the arguments offered by the person.

Chipping away at arguments can seem to like pounding our head against a brick wall. Might I suggest looking at it more like being a sculpture. We chip away one small piece at a time with the goal of creating a masterpiece. God does the same with us and He will guide us as we assist Him in doing the same with someone else. Once we have freed the person from the devil’s trap, we will experience a joy we have never felt before.

I pray we all approach those who oppose God with gentleness. I pray we ask God to open our eyes to see the tangles the person is dealing with. I pray each one of us will be patient and keep our goal in mind. Be patient with opponents. Be gentle with opponents. Ask God for guidance. Ask God for wisdom. Trust God to lead you.

2 Timothy 2:25-26 Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

Lost Seed

How well do you listen? Do you retain what you hear? Can you hear something being said and remember it? Do you hear instruction and know how to apply it in your life? Have you tried to be better at listening and applying?

We are inundated with new information every day. It may come to us verbally from someone we know or while watching the news. We may read information in books, newspapers, or on our computer or phone. We must filter and determine what to do with it all.

The information we hear or read is filtered into two basic categories—useful or not useful. Of course, those two categories are often replaced by two more desirable categories—those we are interested in and those we are not. Notice the difference? We often trade what is useful for what we are interested in. We translate our interests into being useful, which is not always the case.

We can argue about why we do this, but it all boils down to one core reason—we are being fooled. The devil entices us to be selfish, lures us away with shiny objects, hooks us with addictions, and generally pulls us away from what is most useful. His sole purpose is to keep us from learning more about God. Don’t think it is true? Take a look at what you spend your time doing. Log the time you spend watching television, what you are looking at on your computer or phone, and what types of books you read. How much of it is furthers your knowledge of God?

Jesus explains this in the parable of the sower as the seed that falls along the path. The devil snatches it away or squashes it, much like a boot might pick up the seed or trample it so that it won’t sprout. Satan’s desire to keep us from believing God, believing in Jesus Christ, and from being saved. Unfortunately, we see him being far too successful.

What can we do? We can consciously spend more time reading God’s Word, reading books by trusted Bible scholars or Christian authors, and listening to trusted Bible teachers and preachers. The more we put God’s Word and teaching into our minds and hearts, the better we can identify the distractions and avoid them.

I pray we all spend more time with God’s Word. I pray we spend time feeding our minds with God’s teaching. I pray each one of us will decide to be the seed that fell on good soil. Read God’s Word. Read trusted Christian authors. Spend time listening to God’s Word. Choose what you feed your brain wisely. Don’t be fooled. Trust God.

Luke 8:11-12 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

Resist Evil

Do you face opposition? Do you know who it is who is opposing you? Do you know why you are being opposed? Are you resisting? Do you know who or what you are resisting? Do you understand the opposition and resisting?

We face opposition in more forms than we can count. There is physical opposition, verbal opposition, thought opposition, cultural opposition, and social opposition. We resist using the same forms in which we face opposition.

With all the opposition and resistance going on, is it any wonder we see so much frustration, disgruntlement, and hatred in our world? Opposing forces in constant combat. It seems we are continually in a struggle. But where does this struggle come from? What is going on behind the scenes that causes this struggle?

Ultimately, the battle is a continual struggle between good and evil. Unfortunately, our world has distorted the perspective of good and evil. It has devolved into each person developing their own definition of good and evil. When this happens, it is no wonder we see people opposing one another with righteous indignation, fully believing they are in the right.

There is only one who can rightly define good—God. In today’s passage, we see that God opposes the proud. We often believe being proud of our country, our school, our team, or our company is good. When we are filled with pride, we are being opposed by God and we are in opposition to Him. And…we wonder why we suffer. There are consequences for opposing God.

On the other hand, we see we are to resist the devil. You see, the devil is the one who entices us to be proud. He entices us to oppose God. For what reason? Simple…apostasy. That’s a big word. It means to depart from or desert your religion or principles.

As people who claim to belong to God, who follow Jesus Christ, pride becomes apostasy. We are called to be different, to be humble. We see that God is on the side of the humble. What does being humble require? It requires us to submit to God’s will, His instruction, His guidance. It requires us to stop looking down on others. It requires us to stop being selfish. God desires us to be humble and allow Him to reward us.

I pray we all submit to God. I pray we resist the temptations of the devil. I pray each one of us will humble ourselves before God. Trust God to provide your reward. Resist the devil’s temptations. Humble yourself before God. Submit to God.

James 4:6-7 That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Confess Your Doubts

Do you have hidden doubts? Are you unsure or insecure about something? Are you hoping no one sees what you have covered with an outer shell? Has your hidden doubt led to fear? How would you feel if it was revealed?

We sometimes have doubts we don’t want to reveal. Those doubts eat away at us and cause us to be fearful of exposure. We desire to keep our doubts buried under a façade we have developed for others to see.

We may doubt if we can complete a college degree. We may doubt we are suited for a specific job. We may doubt if we are cut out to be parents. We may doubt if we are good enough. Our doubts may develop into fears. Fear we will be discovered. Fear others will think less of us if they know we have these doubts. Fear our friends will reject us because of our doubts and insecurities.

Sometimes, the best thing that can happen is for our doubts to be exposed. In fact, it may be that everyone already knows, but has been keeping it hidden as well. Bringing the doubt to the surface can clear the air, allow for healing, allow for the doubt to be removed.

Take the example from today’s passage. Though it was unsaid, I’m sure the apostles were wondering how the people who were following Jesus were going to eat. We are told there were five thousand men, besides women and children. That’s a lot of people. Jesus knows the apostles are wondering about it and have doubts as to how the people will eat. Perhaps they were especially worried about the children. So, Jesus exposes their doubt. Once it is exposed and the apostles confess they cannot feed them, Jesus works a miracle and feeds them all with five loaves of bread and two small fish.

It often works the same way for us. Once we confess our doubts to Jesus, He works in our lives to remove those doubts. However, it is up to us to take the first step, which is confession. He stands ready to intervene on our behalf.

I pray we all confess our doubts to Jesus. I pray we open ourselves up and allow Him to intervene for us. I pray each one of us are willing to look at ourselves and see the doubts we have buried. Trust Jesus. Confess your doubts to Him. Allow Jesus to intervene for you. Take the first step.

John 6:5-6 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

Looking for Proof

What does it take for you to believe something you hear? What if it sounds a little outrageous? Do you need to have proof? Do you need to see it with your own eyes? What does that say about your faith?

We all want proof for some claims we hear. If we hear of someone surviving a horrendous automobile accident, we want to see them and the vehicle. If we hear of someone making an amazing catch, we want to see the video.

Some of us simply won’t believe without seeing with our own eyes. We may even say, “I’m from Missouri, show me” as a way of indicating we don’t believe it. Others of us will acknowledge we heard but still won’t believe. We may say nothing, but in our minds, we are thinking, “That can’t possibly be true. It’s an exaggeration.”

Jesus ran into this same skepticism when people heard about Him. Some might have a small inkling or hope the stories were true, but they wanted additional proof. Others may have believed and wanted Jesus to perform a miracle for them, out of their own selfishness. Are we like this sometimes?

If we are looking for proof that Jesus is who He says He is today, we cannot simply run up to Him and ask Him to perform a miracle. So, how do we get proof? How do we get proof of Alexander the Great’s conquering of nations? How do we know Aristotle or Socrates wrote what they wrote? We trust these historical events have been written down and passed down. Yet, we have more written historical proof about Jesus than those three combined and still don’t believe.

Why don’t we believe? The simple reason is this, Jesus causes us to make a choice. We can acknowledge and even believe what we read of Alexander, Aristotle, and Socrates without it changing our lives one bit. But Jesus demands a choice and our lives to change if we believe in Him.

We don’t want to make the choice. We don’t want to live different. We don’t want to be different than our friends and the rest of the world. We prefer to fit in than stand out. We say we want to stand out, yet our actions say something completely different. Believing Jesus is who He says He is requires us to change. It requires us to allow Him to make the change in us.

I pray we all believe Jesus is who He says He is. I pray we believe deep in our hearts. I pray each one of us will allow Him to make changes in our lives, so we stand out in the crowd. Believe in Jesus. Know that He is who He says He is. Allow Him to make a change in you. Trust Him.

John 4:48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

Questions to Doubt

Do you have questions? Do you have lots of questions? Is your tendency to question everything and everyone? Or do you only question what you disagree with or do not like? Do you question it, even when you know in your heart it is true?

We all have questions. In fact, we may question many things in our workplace, our homes, our neighborhoods, and even our churches. We may be correct in questioning those things we question. Then again, we may not.

Asking questions to learn is a wonderful thing. We need to ask questions, especially if we are attempting to learn a new trade, learn history, or better understand what is going on around us. But we get in trouble when our questions are meant to stump, belittle, or otherwise cause the other person to look foolish.

In today’s passage, the priests knew Jesus was speaking with authority. They knew He spoke with an authority far above theirs—and they didn’t like it. They wanted to hear Him boast about where His authority came from in order to make Him look foolish in front of a crowd. It was done so they could point their finger at Him and call Him a blasphemer. They wanted to put doubt in the minds of the people.

We are called to put our faith in Jesus. There will be times when others will ask questions, just like these priests, to cause us to doubt. We must stand strong in our faith, not allowing them to put doubt in our minds. We must be prepared for questions designed to make us look foolish in an effort to shame us into crumbling in front of others.

Standing firm in our faith can be difficult at times. Peer pressure, being uncomfortable, and in the spotlight can be challenging. Yet, if we lean on Jesus, lean on the Holy Spirit, we can persevere through it. Continue to put your faith and trust in Him.

I pray we all hold on to our faith. I pray we prepare ourselves for being questioned by others. I pray we don’t allow others to put doubt in our minds about who Jesus is. Hold on to your faith. Hold on to Jesus. Put doubt out of your mind. Don’t allow others to cause doubt.

Luke 20:1-2 One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”