Do you know your enemy?
This sounds so negative!
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
These days you don’t have to look hard or look far to see your enemy. Shoot, you can be half asleep probably and see him prowling about. The enemy doesn’t even try to hide anymore. He’s not sneaky at all. He doesn’t have to be. By our passivity, we have essentially given the enemy free reign: in our country, in our states, in our schools, in our families, everywhere.
Our children are the prime target. Children’s hospitals around the country are giving minor patients gender-changing hormones and performing surgeries to cut off and cut out their body parts that make them male or female. And they’re getting away with it.
Churches all over the country and all over the world have accepted and embraced a sexually immoral lifestyle. They have abandoned the Bible to conform to the ways of this world. That is the work of the enemy.
Christians are cowering in silence because they don’t know how to respond to the backlash of non-Christians who believe that our job, as Christians, is to accept absolutely everything. Or maybe they do know but they want to avoid it because, let’s be honest, it’s uncomfortable.
Discomfort. Silence. Distraction.
These are our enemies. These are strategies the devil will use against Christians.
How often do you use distractions to avoid facing the uncomfortable situations in our day? Maybe instead of taking the time to write a letter to the school superintendent about that anti-racist curriculum your students are learning, you spend 30 minutes watching reels on Instagram and before you know it, there’s no time left to compose that email.
Or maybe you see those crazy videos from children’s hospitals around the country about mutilating the bodies of healthy children in the name of “gender affirmation” and you don’t do anything or say anything because, truth be told, it’s hard to grasp the reality of it and you’re really not interested in the name calling you’ll receive as a result of speaking against it.
The enemy loves to use the tools of shame and discomfort to keep you quiet. The enemy is also very good at using the tool of fear to silence you. Fear that you may lose your job, you may lose friends. The enemy will use your insecurity to make you think that you are alone or antiquated in your thinking.
When you know your enemy and you understand the tools he will use against you, you can prepare and arm yourself with the strategies and the tools to fight back.
This is a spiritual battle, and we cannot win without the Armor of God.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 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. 13 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. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Ephesians 6:10-18
Every day, we must “suit up” and prepare for battle. If we don’t renew our spiritual, mental, and physical, on the daily, there is no way we can win this fight.
When you have identified the way the enemy shows up in your own life, you’ll be able to fight back. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Christians are supposed to sit back and be quiet. In fact, we are supposed to call sin, sin and we are supposed to fight against evil. This is precisely why we’re given the Armor of God.
Light always wins, friends. It’s right there in the Bible – and not just once. The war has already been won. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to fight. We don’t get a free pass here. We have work to do. Know your enemy, know the strategies he uses against you and fight back!
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