Setting Aside Our Christian Comfy Pants
Devotional Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-13
Key Verse: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” Ephesians 6:10-11
When my youngest was four and it was that time of year when you pick apples and carve pumpkins (and face the annual beast I like to call harvest), I did what it looked like everybody on social media was doing and took my kids to the pumpkin patch. When side note, it would have been much easier and cheaper to go to Aldi to buy four pumpkins, but a picture in front of the cart return just wasn’t quite working in my head.
So as any anticipated trip to the pumpkin patch will do, excitement grew. (Especially when there are apple-cider slushies involved.) “I’m going to get a pumpkin as big as the world!” declared my little guy. “Oh really,” I chatted back. “And how do you expect mommy to carry a pumpkin as big as the world?”
“You don’t have to. Jesus is so strong, he’ll carry it.” His response stopped me in my tracks. (Childlike faith, say what?) My little man wasn’t worried, he was confident, because God was strong enough to carry his pumpkin.
Be Strong in the Lord
The Apostle Paul knew this to be true as well. Urging the Ephesian church at the conclusion of his exhortations, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Ephesians 6:10).
Be strong, because your God is strong. Don’t be strong in and of yourself—be strong in the Lord. (This is where the world is so off right now.) Flesh filled strength is about as useful as a tricycle when you’re trying to outrun a bear; while God induced strength is like sitting serenely in an armored car and saying, “Awe, look at that cute bear.”
Left to our own defenses we are weak; we are not strong. So Paul goes on, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (6:11)
Otherwise, I’ll tell you right now, you’ll lose every time. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (6:12). And our sin filled flesh and earth-bound perspective is no match for that.
We Have an Enemy
Tell me, what’s the goal of every lying, thieving, scheming, con-artist out there? To make you think it wasn’t them. So you better believe Satan has the same goal. “Oh it’s not me,” says the father of lies, “It’s your co-worker.” “Oh it’s not me,” says the evil one, “It’s your husband.” “It’s the fact that you don’t have enough money or haven’t lost the baby weight or don’t have the house you want or didn’t say the right thing. It’s your fault, not mine. I’m just a figment of your imagination; a crazy bit of hocus pocus not worth your time.”
I hate to say it, but the deceiver has deceived us. It feels weird to say there are spiritual forces of evil out to get us, doesn’t it? But if God and His angels are real, why can’t Satan and his demons be real? Do you see the deception?
So let’s set the record straight here and now. God is real. Angels are real. Satan is real. Demons are real. There is a battle going on we can’t see. One of good and evil. (Hollywood didn’t think that stuff up.) It’s happening every day, and I believe all the more as the day of the Lord draws closer.
Forces of Evil are Evident in the Scriptures
In the book of Daniel, we get a small glimpse of the spiritual battle our God reigns over. Daniel had received a vision which greatly distressed him. He mourned and fasted and turned to God for understanding yet for three weeks no answer came. Then at last an angel arrived saying, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words” (Daniel 10:12).
God saw and heard Daniel right away. And sent an angel in answer of his request. But then look what the angel says in verse 13, “The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia.”
The angel is not talking about earthly princes and kings, he’s talking about the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realm. The angel got caught up in a battle with the demon ruling over Persia for three weeks on his way to Daniel! It was so intense Michael, the archangel, referred to here as a chief prince, had to come and help him.
Is this not mind blowing? (Or as my little one says, did that not poof you out?) The Bible is not talking in riddles here. The angelic being sent to Daniel is giving him an honest answer as to what took him so long. It was all part of God’s plan so that years later the church could gain a little insight as to what’s going on in the spiritual realm.
Forces of Evil are Still Active Today
And I assure you, those “cosmic powers of this present darkness” and those “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” are not sitting around twiddling their thumbs but are actively against anything of God. Like the gospel, doing whatever it takes to keep the church quiet and caught up in their own silly affairs. Whatever it takes to ruin marriages and families and divide and lead the next generation astray—focused on the wrong things and void of hope. Sound familiar?
The word for wrestle (or maybe your Bible uses the word struggle or fight) in verse 12 is the word for hand-to-hand combat. The Christian life is not a tea party or a backyard BBQ or a classroom we never graduate from. The Christian life is a war zone. It’s a continuous battle, one of spiritual influence and depth. Yet I fear we treat it more like a sleep over with popcorn and brownies.
Generally speaking, we aren’t armed. Instead, we’re in our Christian comfy pants watching a movie on the couch, while our marriage is being ripped to shreds, our children are being attacked, our government is under siege, our schools have been taken captive, our media has been brainwashed, and there’s three believers who care enough to pray about it. (OK, maybe that’s harsh, but you get the idea.)
We’ve Been Called to Action
Real life is not a sleep over, it’s a battle ground (the party is later). So how do we fight? Faith, obedience, righteousness, and the Holy Spirit. “That you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm” (6:13).
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh” (2 Cor. 10:3). But when we do wage war against our brothers and sisters and neighbors and friends, instead of the true enemy, you better believe the enemy is rejoicing because we’ve been sidelined from the true fight.
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Oh what a promise! Submit to God’s way and God’s will and God’s timing, trusting Him for all three, and the devil will flee from you, unable to combat with such fierce faith.
That is how we fight my friend! In the coming week’s we’ll study in detail each piece of our God gifted armor. And I’m telling you—it’s something special. But we have to put it on. We have a choice to either be “strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” or sit around dumbfounded at life in our Christian pj’s unarmed and susceptible to the schemes of the devil.
We have an enemy; we have a choice; we have a God who speaks and the mountains fall. It’s time to suit up my friend and be strong.
Contemplate and Evaluate:
What does it mean to be strong in the Lord? What does that look like?
How does trusting God combat any and all schemes of the devil?
