Monday, April 10, 2023
A Very Real Spiritual War
No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. (Romans 8:37 NLT)
The Bible often uses the examples of military battle, fighting, and warfare as a picture of the Christian life. Paul exhorted Timothy, “Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3 NLT).
Paul also wrote that he had “fought the good fight” (2 Timothy 4:7). Anyone who chooses to be on the side of the Lord Jesus Christ will face severe opposition from Satan and his followers. On the day you put your faith in Jesus Christ, a very real spiritual war begins in your life.
We will either fight or suffer defeat. We will either gain ground or lose ground. But we must be involved in the spiritual battle. And if we try to be spiritual pacifists, we’ll be knocked down.
Therefore, we had better suit up. We had better put on our spiritual armor and learn principles from God’s Word that teach us how to be more than conquerors in Christ.
Remember, Jesus told the disciples that the gates of Hell would not prevail against them as the church (see Matthew 16:18).
We may not fully understand what this means today. But in their first-century culture, they would have known that one of the primary strategies for attacking a fortress was to knock down the gates with a battering ram, rush in, and defeat the opposing army.
In the same way, we as the church are marching on, even against the fortresses of the enemy. And their gates will not prevail against us. Those gates eventually will fall, and we will triumph.
We may lose a skirmish here and a battle there, but we will win the war. There’s no doubt about it. The truth of the gospel ultimately will prevail. Meanwhile, it’s up to us to fight the good fight of faith.
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