Fight From a Position of Victory



Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:13

One of the biggest keys to successfully fighting spiritual warfare is to fully understand that you’ve already won. Because life can sometimes feel overwhelming and because attacks on your family and those you love can seem relentless, it’s easy to believe the lie that the enemy is too strong and overpowering, leaving us to fight an uphill, losing battle against the enemy. But as you’ll be reminded again tomorrow, lies are the first line of attack by the devil. The truth is, you’re not fighting a losing battle, the enemy is. Paul writes to first century believers about Jesus, “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, Jesus made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15).

“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Because Jesus has already secured our victory, we can have solid faith on behalf of our families and those we love for a future that is not yet seen. We can can have confidence that a marriage will be restored, that a wayward child will come home, that an addiction will be broken, that a fellow Christian will live in the victory he or she was created for. Your God-centered confidence that you will be successful in your fight for your family generates a faith that brings the possible into reality. If you wake up every morning saying, “My marriage is going to fail,” don’t be surprised when it does. If you wake up every morning saying, “My family will overcome this, he will be set free, she will come home, we will be victorious,” don’t be surprised when you are victorious. Fight with the confidence that through Jesus you’ve already won, because you have.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. When it comes to fighting for your family or those you love, have you been fighting from a position of victory or a position of defeat? How does that affect how you fight?

2. What specific battles in your family or in the lives of those you love do you need to begin to claim victory for in advance?

NEXT STEP

The next step for fighting from a position of victory is to utilize strategic thanksgiving. Spend time in prayer (you can write it out as your warfare prayer to God) thanking God for the victory He’s already given you on behalf of those you are fighting for. Thanksgiving reminds you and reminds the enemy of the victory Jesus has already achieved for you.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Danger

Image
If you’re reading this right now then be warned. This devotional to spiritual warfare is a bit dangerous, not to you, but to your way of life. If ignorance is bliss, it aims to destroy that bliss forever. Imagine living in a house infested with termites. For years you never noticed them. Just beyond reach, just out of sight, they lived, they ate, they spawned, they festered. For all those years you blindly ate, played, and slept, unaware of the lurking presence right beneath your head at night. If you live in a house full of termites is it better to know or is it simpler to live in ignorance? If you prefer ignorance, then stop reading right now. If you don’t want to know about the spiritual forces that have been eating away at the foundation of your life and family like termites, then there’s no need to go any farther. Ignorance is in fact bliss, at least for the short term. This book’s aim is nothing short of ripping up the base boards, pulling out the sheetrock and exposing the d...
Read more

Worship

Image
Text: Psalm 104.24-35 Psalm 104 starts and ends with the words, “Praise the Lord, my soul”. The beginning and the end are a proclamation of praise to the Almighty God. In fact, the whole psalm is a review of the greatness of God in creation and, therefore, a meditation on God’s providence. To consider such things, helps us to draw closer to God and worship Him. If we are sincere with ourselves, our daily situations (children, work, news, stress, etc.) can take our attention away from God. It is not easy to just plug-in and worship the Lord. I find myself missing so much of God’s creation, because my mind wanders off to my daily concerns. My wife calls me to really see the beauty around us, otherwise I would miss it. How easy it is for us to be carried away and not once lift our eyes to the Lord, and worship Him that created the earth. Let us open our spiritual eyes, God has revealed through the authors of the Psalms that all of creation is called to worship. It is not just appreciation...
Read more

Fight Together

Image
Stand . . . Take . . . Pray. Ephesians 6:10, 14, 18 The final step in successful spiritual warfare is one that is as critical as the others but it is far too easily missed. The last step isn’t a specific verse or a piece of armor mentioned, but rather a verb tense. When most Americans read the armor of God passage in Ephesians 6, we read it through the lens of our individualistic, self-focused mindset. We worry about ourselves first and foremost. As harsh as it sounds, everyone else can fend for themselves. But that’s not the intention at all behind Paul’s instructions on spiritual warfare. When Paul tells us to stand firm, to take the pieces of armor, to pray, the verb is not in the singular form, it’s in the plural. To use Southern language, it’s as if he’s saying, “Y’all stand, y’all take, y’all pray.” Why is this important? Because too often our defeat in spiritual warfare comes from the fact that we try and engage in it on our own. And please understand this: if the enemy ha...
Read more