2003-03-05
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
The Holy Spirit leads me to ask the question: when are the elements of God’s full armor useful to us? We’ve already shown that they are fitted for us whenever Satan is on the attack, so we know they are good in defense against that. However, perhaps we have not considered that they are useful in offensive warfare as well. Just to recall, these are the elements of God’s full armor from EPH 6: 10-20: truth (belt), righteousness (breastplate), readiness to spread the Gospel (shoes), faith (shield), salvation (helmet), word of God (sword), and prayer. So, let’s take some time to examine defensive and offensive spiritual warfare. Remember EPH 6: 18? “Do all of this [donning God’s full armor] in prayer, asking for God’s help. Pray on every occasion as the Spirit leads. For this reason keep alert and never give up; pray always for all of God’s people.” When we are praying to keep on the alert, this is defensive warfare. It indicates we should maintain great sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
What is happening here when we keep alert is that we are accepting the Holy Spirit’s leadership and we are listening intently for any of God’s commands that He transmits to us. When the enemy is advancing, it is often necessary for a commander to give his orders very quietly. If the foot soldiers are talking or engaging in some other diversion, they may miss those orders. That’s how I think God, our Commander-in-Chief gives some of His commands. The need for quiet serves two purposes. It keeps us with our attention fixed on God, and it doesn’t alert the enemy that action against him is about to be taken. Never giving up is the order to persevere. What good are soldiers who give up at the first salvo from the enemy? Satan is a hard worker; he doesn’t give up easily. That’s a reason why he is so angry that his time is limited [REV 12: 12]. His malevolence seems to know no bounds. Sticking to the job is what is required in dealing with him, if we are to be an asset to God’s winning side in this battle. It takes courage, for which we must appeal to God.
Every week in church, we find ourselves saying the Lord’s Prayer. Because so many of us have learned this prayer by rote, we haven’t taken the time to really look it is full meaning and significance. LK 11: 1 reveals that Christ was using this as the model for how to pray in response to a request from His disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray…” both in fact and in method. LK 11: 2-4, “He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: ‘Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.’” To begin, Christ taught the disciples to address God as “Our Father,” indicating an intimate family relationship. This had never been done in the OT. It meant that believers were to think of God as a loving heavenly Father. Next, Christ indicates that God’s name should be hallowed, an expression of the longing of the believer’s heart that God should treated with reverence, that He should be magnified, and as an expression of our adoration for the Father. The expression, “Your Kingdom come,” is a prayer that soon God, through the Son, will firmly and permanently put down the forces of evil and that He will reign supreme over earth. At this time His will shall be done in heaven as well. After seeking out God’s righteousness first and petitioning for the end of evil, the person praying then turns to supplication for his own needs, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Bread in this context means not only physical nourishment, but it means spiritual nourishment as well. It acknowledges our utter dependence on the Father to meet our needs, something only the Father can do. What follows is a prayer for the forgiveness of sins based on our own willingness to be forgiving. That forgiveness is grounded on the work of the cross, and it is received through faith alone. After we are saved, God deals with us as His children, rebuking, correcting, guiding, and teaching us, so that we can eventually be perfected enough to answer the call of the last trumpet for a meeting in the air with Christ [1 THESS 4: 13-17].
God knows that we suffer pain, disappointment, and loss. These things don’t come from Him, but from the forces of evil. However, He allows a measured amount of this evil, so that we are forced to work through these challenges to our faith, thus advancing our sanctification. I use the word “measured” in this last sentence, because of my understanding of 1 COR 10: 13, “Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps His promise, and He will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, He will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out." So, it is wholly appropriate for us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” in the Lord’s prayer. We can and should ask the Lord for His protection against us falling into sin as a result of the temptations we face. This expresses a healthy distrust of our own ability to resist sin without God’s help. Today, we should spend some time meditating on the true meaning of each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer to us in our own lives.
PRAYER: O Lord, as we begin examining defensive and offensive uses of God’s full armor in our battles with Satan, we recognize our total dependence on You. Our imperfections rest with the sin we inherited through Adam. That day when the serpent deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the souls of all mankind were opened to Satan’s evil. We know from what we are told and what we believe that Christ’s death on the cross gave mankind a way out from this horrific trap. Once we repented and came to faith in Your Son, the process of gradually closing our souls to the influence of the forces of evil began. Moreover, our souls began to open wider and wider to Your Spirit, Who through Your compassion, enters them, fills them, and leads them as one matures in the faith. When Christ defeated Satan at Calvary, we who believe were given a key to the narrow gate that leads along the hard path to eternal life. JN 14: 6 is our reality. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me.” We acknowledge, Dearest Abba, that we are Your work in progress; our sanctification is not completed yet. We share in a deep and abiding faith that one day, we will be glorified, just as Christ, “the First among many brothers [RO 8: 29], was. It is the hope that all believers share of the resurrection, the raising from death to eternal life. Because You love us so much, we became justified, that is, deemed acceptable to You, when we first came to faith in Him [RO 4: 21-25]. We are Your adopted children, and we love You. Our pledge is to remain firm in the faith, to battle Satan using the full armor You have given us, and to persist as long as it is necessary in Your opinion. This pledge certainly includes trusting and obeying You faithfully, as foot soldiers in Your army against evil. Today, we begin to learn how to pray defensively. Later, we will see how it can be used offensively as well. We humbly confess our sins and offer You our heartfelt adoration, worship, diligence, loyalty, glory, honor, trust, obedience, thanks, and praise. In Christ’s name, amen.
LK 11: 1-13 is too important to give short shrift. The Spirit leads me to go on in tomorrow’s message writing about Christ’s teaching on prayer. I believe that our faith in Christ opened the narrow gate, and that out of His love for each of us, He takes our hands to guide us along the hard path. There are times when we let go of His hand in a fit of pique or a time of giving in to Satan’s temptation. But, our loving Good Shepherd doesn’t give up on us. Sometimes we are that one lost sheep that needs the Shepherd’s tender care to be brought back into the flock [LK 15: 4-6]. When He finds us and brings us back to the flock, He is happy and wants to celebrate. His love and our willingness to trust and obey Him restores our souls and gives us peace. His greatest desire is to have us complete this difficult journey and come back to the Father, Who eagerly awaits the day when we will be at His side in bliss for eternity. That, Dear Ones, is my idea of God’s love for each of us. Peter and I send each of you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn