Are you waging war in your prayer closet as often as you wage war with your neighbor? Do you engage in prayer as often as you engage in social media debates?
Know Who You’re Fighting
I saw a sign outside a local church the other day that read: Christians, teach your children or the world will. It bothered me, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint why. Then I started thinking about it and realized that while the message means well (and I totally get the context!) there was just one crucial problem.
The world is not our enemy.
Don’t get me wrong. I understand our current culture is a hot mess! That’s impossible to deny. Twisted and perverted themes attack not only our grown-women minds and identities but also those of our children and teenagers. From social media to online articles to TV commercials to the latest offerings from Hollywood and Spotify, we are daily bombarded with “worldly” messages. It can be overwhelming and discouraging, to say the least. It’s why so many parents choose to homeschool, ban or limit screens, block apps, and stay home. I don’t blame them—I do some of those things, myself.
But we have to be careful when identifying the enemy, or we’ll be in danger of creating one where there shouldn’t be…and feeding into some of the true enemy’s goals.
Distraction and deception.
Listen to the words of Jesus in John 17:14-15 (ESV): "I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one."
We’ve mixed up the message. The world is not the evil one—the evil one is in the world.
That means—brace yourself, sisters—our enemy is not the elite, the patriarchy, or feminists (gasp). Our enemy is not the LGBTQ community, the left extremists, or the right extremists (bombastic side eye). Our enemy is not a person, a people group, or an agenda.
Scripture makes it clear: our enemy is the devil—and his minions.
Ephesians 6:12 (ESV) says, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
Does the enemy work through various groups of people? Of course. Does he use fallen men and women for his purposes? Absolutely. Does he capitalize on the depravity of humankind to pull glory from God, pervert good things God created, and mislead God’s people? Yes! But the problem is that we’ve labeled those people, those image bearers of God, as the enemy. And in doing so, we fight marionettes instead of the master puppeteer.
When we misidentify the enemy, we release arrows in the wrong direction.
Hear me out—this doesn’t mean we don’t fight. We do! We stand up for what is right. We sign petitions and vote according to our convictions and speak out when something isn’t true. Of course, we do those things! We fight for the unjust and for the rights of the unborn. We proclaim God’s truth and the Gospel.
But if we do those things without love, we’re just noise.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (ESV) "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Our battle methods matter, ladies. Are you fighting the battle on your knees, or with your fingers on a keyboard?
Are you waging war in your prayer closet as often as you wage war with your neighbor?
Do you engage in prayer as often as you engage in social media debates?
Do you speak to Jesus about your cares and worries more than you gossip about them or put someone’s personal choices down behind their back?
Yikes.
The Enemy Is Real
It’s tempting—and I truly believe a ploy of the enemy—to take on battles that feel productive in the moment but don’t do any eternal good. It’s deception. Think about it—when was the last time you debated someone online and won them over to your Christian worldview? Personally, I can’t tell you a single time. But I can tell you multiple instances when I’ve prayed and surrendered someone I loved to Christ, and their heart changed.
Girl, know your enemy. He’s real, and he’s sneaking in the back door because we’re engaged elsewhere—usually, in fighting each other. We’ve determined people who think differently than us are the enemy, or sometimes, even our own spouses or family members. We mistakenly believe that we have to fight to make people agree with us and get on our page, rather than fighting the one actually creating the deception and delusion in the hearts of the people we should love.
Our enemy is a persistent one. Peter warns us to be on guard for a reason. 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV) says, "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."
Fight the Right Way
Sadly, I’ve seen more Christians attempt to devour each other than band together to fight against the devour-er. By all means, fight for your heart and your children’s hearts. Fight for what’s good and true and noble—but please, make sure you’re fighting the real battle.
It’s not against your neighbor.
It’s not against that person who looks different than you.
It’s not against a particular group, community, or denomination.
It’s not against a particular period in history.
It’s against the father of lies.
You want to get angry? You want to fight for your children’s future? You want to stop the perversion and hatred and crimes that permeate our world today?
Fight the right enemy, and fight with biblical weapons.
Ephesians 6:10-11 (ESV) "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."
Notice the word choice, there. Schemes, or tactics, comes from the Greek word taktikos, which means “of order, of tactics, fit for arranging,” which is also derived from tassein—which literally means to place in battle formation.
Our enemy has a battle plan. What’s yours? If it’s anything other than God’s command in Ephesians, you’re not going to advance very far. Here’s what we should be doing:
Ephesians 6:14-17 (ESV) "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."
Hold some of those words up against your M.O. and see how you pan out. Truth. Righteousness. Peace. Faith.
Is that how you’re battling? Or do your battle words look more like the ones I often struggle with? Self-righteousness. Irritation. Frustration. Judgment.
Yikes again.
Here’s another biblical command for battle:
James 4:7-8 (ESV) "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."
When we resist the devil, he flees from us. But notice the condition that comes first—we must submit to God. Fighting battles our own way isn’t submission, is it? The formula doesn’t work out of order. We can’t take things into our own hands and expect good results.
The battle plan is a promise, and it’s sandwiched between two simple commands—submitting to God and drawing near to God. When we take those action steps, we’re equipped to resist the devil—and he will flee. Guaranteed.
It’s that easy, and it’s that hard.
Girl, know your enemy.
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/Stanislav Hubkin
