Ephesians
6:10-11 (NIV)
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.
Paul concludes his letter to the Ephesian
church by describing the warfare each Christian faces every day, warfare that
involves daily attacks by the main enemy of the Christian faith—Satan and all
his demons. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote
a 373 page book entitled The Christian Warfare (Baker Books, 1976), an
exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13. The
book deals with the character and all the strategies of the devil to defeat
Christians from being effective for God and demonstrates how discouragement,
anxiety, false zeal, lack of assurance, and worldliness are the mainstays of
the devil’s schemes.
Right now as you are reading this, if you
are dealing one or more of the following:
· faith problems
(e.g. God is not answering my prayers, doubts)
· money problems
(both having it or not having it where money has become an idol)
· moral failure
problems (e.g. sexual immorality whether you have been caught or not)
· relationship
problems (e.g. conflicts becoming exaggerated, jealousy and envy)
· psychological
problems (e.g. excessive worry and fear, insecurity, frustration, addictions)
· spiritual problems
(e.g. apathy, discouragement, deception)
· confusion (e.g.
your life is filled with uncertainties and you are paralyzed by these)
· depression (e.g.,
I’m not any good, I’m not useful, no one cares for me)
you are being attacked by the schemes
(strategies) of the devil. He will
attack you daily, persistently, and especially when you are most vulnerable to
his attacks. No Christian escapes these
attacks, you have to be on guard all the time (I Peter 5:8).
Satan’s main goal is to remove you from
being an effective Christian. Pastor
Scott Luck preached about the “Christian Atheist”, people who say that they are
believers in Christ, but don’t act like it, are people who have been removed as
effective Christians. They have been knocked
out of the match, the game, the combat zone.
Nominal/casual Christian people---Satan won’t waste much time on
you. Who Satan really is interested in
attacking are Christians who are effective in their ministries and in their
walk with the Lord. The more effective
you are as a child of God, the more you should expect to experience major
attacks by the enemy.
So, how do your defend yourself against
Satan’s attacks? You cannot win if you
rely on your own strength. Examples of
relying on human strength include making resolutions, using human therapists,
reading self-help books, and trying to ignore the attacks. Likely any mature Christian will admit that
at some time in his/her life he tried to resist these attacks without the help
of the Lord and failed. Note that Paul
writes that Christians must be strong “in the Lord and in His mighty power”.
The sooner the Christian realizes that he/she cannot fight satanic attacks on
his/her own, the more successful you will be in overcoming these attacks.
The Lord’s mighty power involves five
defensive and one offensive weaponry written in Ephesians 6:14-18. You need the whole armor of God (“put on the
full armor”) not just one or two pieces. Basically, think about the power of
God when you think of the resurrection of Jesus Christ where God’s power is so
great that He can bring people back from the dead. Think of God’s power when you witness forces
of nature. Think of God’s power through
the realities of all His creation, the beauty and majesty and order of it. You need this kind of power to help you
overcome the attacks of Satan currently in your life and will occur throughout
your life.
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