Ready For Battle

This is war. We are in a spiritual conflict. It can be described as a warfare of faith that we, as Christians, must fight our entire lives. Our enemy is Satan, and he is out to destroy us any way he can. We fight against the powers and authorities of this world, and God has given us the weapons we need to win the battle.

Ephesians 6:11 tells us to "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."

When we come to Christ, we think our battle against sin is over and that we won't struggle with sin anymore. The real fight is just beginning, though. Our old sinful nature remains within us even after we are saved, and we must resist that nature. Satan is our deadly enemy, and he's waiting to trip us up.

We must choose every day whether we will follow our sin nature or turn from it and obey God. The Bible warns that those who follow the sin nature cannot inherit God's kingdom. The sinful nature must be resisted and put to death through daily warfare.

We wage war against sin and temptation, not in our own power, but with spiritual weapons. The apostle Paul gives the call to arms and lists the weapons of our warfare in Ephesians 6:14-17.

It says, "Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

By putting on all of God's armor, we can be assured of withstanding our enemy's attacks.

Our victory has been won by Jesus himself through His death on the cross. Jesus won the battle against Satan, disarmed the evil powers and redeemed us so we could be free from sin. If we use the weapons we have in God, we will win.