Life is a Battlefield

"...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist"
"...take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one" ~ Eph. 6: 14,16, 17

I know that in this day and age, we typically do not see flaming arrows being used on the physical battlefield so us not being familiar with them is somewhat understandable.  However, for this passage, we perhaps should take note since it does not merely say arrows, but flaming ones.  So what's the difference?

While in the days of old, a flaming arrow may kill someone that was not their primary purpose.  Their main purpose was to fill people with fear and throw them into confusion - wound them, send them running and thus make them part of the problem and very ineffective.  With this in mind, those arrows of the enemy are not necessarily aimed at killing us so much as they are for scattering us, confusing us and filling us with fear.  So what are these arrows anyway?

Simply put:  lies.

Satan cannot change God or change who we really are, but if he can get us to believe a lie about either or both, he can cause us some real problems.  And do not think we hear these lies directly from him all the time - more often than not, we hear them from the world around us and other people, even some who are well intentioned.  Satan has been lying from the very beginning so he is actually exceptional it, which is somewhat unfortunate for us, especially when there are so many voices around us (even within our own heads sometimes) that feed us lies and false wisdom.  Wordly wisdom and Godly wisdom are massively different after all.

Back to our arrows.  There are many that get fired our way, far too many to list but here is a few of the more common ones:

1. Having us question God.  Same idea as happened with Eve in the garden, "did God really say...".  I have posted a bit recently about trusting God and having us question that trust can really drive us insane.  It causes us to worry all but constantly about all kinds of things - from our salvation to every other possible aspect of our lives.

2. Trying to convince us that we are no better than we ever were.  While it is true we lived the lives we lived, when we are saved by grace, we are made new - now spiritually alive and connected directly to God.  We are not what we once were.  Sure we may carry some old habits and thought patterns but we have a choice and do not have to follow them.  God calls us saints - not because we earned it somehow, but just because He called us, saved us and made us His very own.

3. Telling us all kinds of nasty things about God's character.  Point blank, slander.  The idea, of course, is to make us believe that God really does not love us or that He is out to get us or some other variety thereof.    Believing any of that will drive you away from God, not towards Him.

Now, considering how many of us have security issues, control issues, acceptance issues and trust issues, it is not to hard to see that even those few above could be devastating if they were believed.  So what do we do?  How can we defend ourselves from an onslaught that targets us in such intimate ways?  The answer is also in the armor listing of Ephesians 6. 

Truth and the Word of God.

It is within our minds and thoughts that we get bombarded so heavily, so it is there that we must take our stand.  For instance, if God were to tell you He was going to bring out something in your life you have two choices:  believe that He not only can but will (trust Him) or believe the lie that He will not do so.  Now what you may see may help reinforce the lie, but consider the words of Proverbs 3:5: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding".  We see only in part and understand even less.  As has been mentioned in a recent post, God has not broken a promise or  lied yet and is not going to start with you.  Believing that can, and does, help knock down that lie pretty quickly.

The same is true for what God has to say about us, as believers.  God not only calls us saints but He also calls us His children.  He says we are dearly loved by Him and that He is our refuge and our fortress and that He will never, ever leave us.  Sure, we still have the ability to commit sin but we are more than the sin we commit.  For example, I have known (and know) several people in my life who previously identified themselves as nothing more than objects to be used for sexual fulfillment by others.  Now if you believe that about yourself, how are you going to live, even if you are saved?  You are likely going to live in that perception of yourself as if it were the only reality - any sense of morality you even try to stand on will crumble without much effort.  And there is a good chance you will find yourself in a constant circle of shame and guilt.  However, if you believe that you are more
than what you have been used for in the past or the choices that you have made in your life, then you will live that out and you will find strength (in God) to stand against the old ways of thinking that once dominated your life.  You do not have to give in.  Not now, not ever.

In the end, it comes down to not only knowing what is true and what is not, but believing the truth.  Not the world's truth.  Not the enemy's truth.  Not your experiences in this life's truth.  Not what others call you or treat you like truth.  God's truth.  The truth about Who God is in character and the truth about whom you are.  Knowing that truth and standing on it.  Living it.  You are more than the sum of your past mistakes, after all.  You are a child of God, a co-heir with Christ, saved by grace and pursued by the only true God who is, indeed, jealous for you; for He loves you more than you can even imagine.

Now I am not talking about "mind over matter" or the "power of positive thinking".  What I am talking about is faith that what God says is true, whether that be about Himself or about us.  Choosing to believe God and take Him at His word.  After all, we choose to believe people all the time and people can (and do) lie. God cannot lie, so believing what He says just seems to make sense.

Hey does this mean that, since I am a child of God - saved by grace - that I can just carry on getting drunk every weekend, having random sexual encouters, lying to oodles of people, staying in that common-law relationship or whatever else that I have felt is wrong?  No.  No, it does not mean that at all.  What it does mean is that you have a choice - you can actually choose to live for God rather than living as a slave to what your past and the world tells you you are.

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!" ~ Romans 6:1,2

  You were not saved to pursue the old, after all, but the new - you pursued the old before, remember?  Why would you want to go back to it?  It was hollow before, it is hollow now.

So read and pray.  Seek the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.  Seek His truth first and foremost in all things and every situation, relationship and circumstance in your life.