Sunday, April 26, 2009

Everything is spiritual.


Words cannot describe the kind of week I have had. It has been a week of extremes.

Joy and sadness. Exhileration and despair. Good news and horrible news. Confrontation and avoidance. Progress and regression.

All of this occurred while adjusting to 3 children and striking that fine balance between work and home. Some weeks are just crazy! Looking back on what I've been through this week reminds me even more that I am engaged in spiritual warfare. My tendency is to get caught up in the urgency of the immediate...solving the problems, fixing stuff, when in reality the surface problems are just fronts for the real spiritual battles behind the scenes.

Paul reminded us of our real war in Ephesians 6:10-13 when he wrote: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 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. 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."

Everything is spiritual. The physical world in which we live is just a facade of the superstructure of spiritual activity around us. It is very easy to look at everything through physical eyes...when someone hurts you....or when things don't go as you planned....or (as what really happened to me at 11:30 last night) your laptop dies just as you are finishing your Sunday message manuscript and you have to start over again. When this happens, I take a deep breath, say a prayer, and remind myself that my battle is not with people, calendars, personal agendas, or computers. My battle is against Satan himself. Satan hates me and my work. He hates my church. He hates the fact that I have a great life and that I love my family. He so desperately wants to subvert the work of God in my life that he will do whatever he can to distract me and throw me off course.

Satan has this crazy way of orchestrating things to happen around us that affect us without us ever giving him credit. He wants you to get mad at people, and agendas, and computers. He wants you to get so wrapped up in the surface world that the spiritual realm never enters your mind. So remember, the next time something happens...it's not just physical. Consider the devil and his schemes...and stand your ground. Remember that greater is the force within you than that which is in the world! (I John 4:4)

1 comment:

Steve said...

Read those Ephesians verses this morning and was reminded that we live our lives in a war zone. If we think life's a vacation at the beach we'll be disappointed with the accommodations and become a casualty pretty quickly. But if we realize we are in a real battle with real ememies and that our lives and those around us are always at risk, it changes our perspective.

1. The closer you are to the frontlines, the more opposition we should expect and we'd better double-check our armor.

2. We're still gonna suffer casualties. It might be us or someone close to us that is wounded or killed. Unless we've decided up front that we trust the Commander of Heaven's Army and that His cause is worth our lives, the best thing is for us to get under a rock and just hide.

3. For occupied territory, the barracks are nice, the food's pretty good, the scenery is often stunning, and it feels good to know there are others that have our backs and will fight for and with us when the attacks come.