No Thank You
Why is Satan so successful in the spiritual battle? Because we are human beings who want to be satisfied, even when we want what is not good for us. We have heart disease and add salt to our food. We have diabetes and eat ice cream every day. We are overweight but don’t feel like exercising. We know what we should be doing but just don’t do it. If there isn’t immediate gratification, we aren’t inclined to take action.
The enemy uses this human inclination for comfort and satisfaction to attack us. And so, in response—and in anticipation—we must learn to control our passions, to practice self-denial.
My Bad!
My Bad! That's what you say when you have messed up. You knock over someone's drink. "My bad!" You blame someone for a mistake and find that it was your own fault. "My bad!" It's a common way of acknowledging our faults, of taking the blame for something we did, of owning our mistakes. And it is said without any judgment about our identity. No self-condemnation. Just a simple statement that we were wrong.
Repentance is a little like that, in that we acknowledge our fault or sin, but there's more. We don't just say, "My bad" (although we say that). We also say, "I don't want to do that again. I want to be different."
We Are Not Alone
In the movie Don't Look Up, a dark comedy made a few years ago, Earth is about to be destroyed. Everyone knows it's going to happen, and they can't do anything about it. Of course, there is panic and chaos and egotistical characters. I didn't care much for the movie, but I found one scene I loved. As a family sits at the table to wait for the end, someone says, "Maybe we should pray." But nobody knows how because God was long ago forgotten. Then one character, not a member of the family, offers to lead a prayer because he grew up in a Christian home, and he says the loveliest prayer to God. (You can look it up to get the exact words.) It is a humble prayer of surrender and petition. In their darkest moment, they turned to God.
Sword of the Spirit
Ephesians 1:3 tells us that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We have everything we need. Our spiritual arsenal is huge—or could be. A soldier can have a gun, but it's useless if he doesn't know how to use it. If it's jammed, it's useless. The same holds true for our spiritual weapons. We have to keep the weapons battle-ready, and sometimes we don't. They are available to us, but we have to learn how to use them, and we have to maintain them.
The first weapon in our spiritual arsenal is the Sword of the Spirit.
Inventory Time
It's time to switch gears. I have been posting about common spiritual attacks we face every day. Enough about what the devil is doing. Let's consider what we can do to fight his attacks.