Morning Journal
I Samuel 15:3 ‘Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’
Saul became a warrior king. This is his first charge from Samuel. I know it sounds harsh, but the Amalekites sought to destroy Israel as they were seeking to enter the promised land long ago. So payback is coming. There is a warrior aspect to the christian life. Not that we are to war against others, but against the sin in our lives and the worldly culture that seeks to corrupt us and others.
Ephesians 6 has much to say about spiritual warfare. Verse 12 says, “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.” How does this work? The Lord seeks to drive out the bad habits and clean up our thought life. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Verse 14 of Ephesians six says to “Stand firm…”. That’s most of the battle, to stand for God’s ways. We don’t want to get run over by temptation. This chapter doesn’t tell us to make all sorts of advances, but to keep our ground. This is encouraging. We aren’t brilliant military strategists, but just normal people. With God’s help we can do this.
That same verse says to put on the belt of truth about our waists. God’s Word is the truth. The belt makes our clothes stay in place. We would have difficulty standing firm if we were distracted by clothes that were a struggle to keep in place. The bible provides guidance for us as to how to live, but also gives us God’s Words. Just like a belt can hold things together, so God’s Word has the same effect spiritually.
Verse 14 also says to have the breastplate of righteousness in place. This piece of armor covers our hearts and vital organs. We have the righteousness of Christ. His death paid for our sins and we are now clean before the Lord. Our struggles with sin can make us feel guilty. At these times we ignore the guilt and know the truth that the Lord sees us as clean. This is important as guilt can discourage and prompt us to give in. The righteous of Christ gives us encouragement.
Verse 15 says, “with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” As we walk through this world we are to be peace makers. There are impediments to peace. James 4:2,3 speaks of the main culprit, “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
We all want things. We wake up with our plans in mind. This isn’t wrong, just the way things are. All sorts of obstructions enter. The Lord wants us to patiently and unselfishly wade through these. However, the battle against selfishness is constant. As we let selfishness win, we are usually capitlizing against another. We’ve just set them against us. We’ve also done the opposite of what the Lord wants us to do, to bring peace.
To be a peacemaker we often need to die having our way. This is a battle. It’s part of spiritual warfare. There is more to this which will be addressed in part II tomorrow.
Lord, thank You for Your ways. Thank You for aiding us in spiritual warfare and that You teach us to deny ourselves the things that will harm us and ourselves.