In the Battle - Ephesians 6:12

 

Maybe you’re a people pleaser. Maybe you struggle with wanting to be “good enough”...and knowing that you are never going to be.  Maybe you have a secret (or not so secret) addiction or struggle with guilt over things you can’t “fix”. Maybe your past haunts you, or your future scares you. Maybe you are struggling in your marriage or you aren’t the parent you’d hoped you’d be. Maybe there are people in your life who just push your buttons and drive you crazy. Maybe you are filled with rage,  selfishness, pride, vanity, bitterness, or unforgiveness.

No matter what they LOOK like, all these things we struggle with come from the same source. Scripture says this….

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. Ephesians 6:12

THIS is the battle.

If you have not professed Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, the battle is for your soul. Satan has done, is doing, and will continue to do everything within his power to keep you from a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  

If you are a Christian, Satan has no claim to your soul. His focus is to make you miserable, to steal your joy, to tarnish your witness and quiet your testimony.

THIS is the battle. I fight it every day, and, whether you realize it or not,  so do you.  Do you sense when Satan is attacking you and call him out, or do you allow him to steal your joy, compromise your witness, and create dissention between you and the people in your life?

Earlier this week something I submitted was chosen to be used on an online devotional site. Not only that, but I was asked to write another devotion for the month of August. I was over the top excited! In the middle of telling a friend about this, my children called. The older one wanted to go to the pool. The younger didn’t want to go. One was yelling. The other was crying. Neither would listen to reason. Both were having a complete meltdown…over the POOL of all things. Before I even hung up the phone, I thought, “How can you tell complete strangers how to follow after God when you can’t even teach your kids how to?” As if reading my thoughts, my friend said, “You know that was Satan, right? I mean, your kids  never call freaking out like that.”

Do you see the battle? Do you see this battle in your own life? The scenarios are different. Still, there is a basic Satan / God battle going on every day. Do you see it?

Go back to my situation…with the kids and the fighting and the pool.

Instead of punishing them for being total brats, I explained that Satan used them. It was an awesome opportunity for me to help them see how Satan works in their lives and for them to recognize what it FEELS like when he attacks.

Over the next few days, I challenge you to pay attention. Call Satan out when he attacks. Shine light on his schemes to wreck your relationships and steal your joy.

We are In the Battle against Satan, not at war with one another.

Pray with me?

Father God, thank you for your Word. Thank you for reminding me that my battle is not against the people in my life, but against Satan. Help me to recognize Satan’s attacks and to call him out. Your Word tells me to resist the Devil and he must flee. I claim that promise Lord. Help me also to see YOUR hand at work in my life. Help me to look for ways each day to share your love with the people you have put in my path.

Amen

Submission and Respect

I’ve been thinking a lot about marriage. In generations past, the husband "ruled the roost”. Wives were expected to submit to their husbands with no questions asked. Maybe we are just living on the other end of the pendulum swing, but it appears that the opposite is now true. Now women demand that their husbands "toe the line". Neither extreme is God's plan for marriage. Both are destructive. Both extremes hurt the people in the relationship.

God's plan for marriage is beautiful and fulfills both man's and woman's deepest needs. 

Here it is from Ephesians 5:

²² Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, ²³ for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. ²⁷ He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, ³⁰ since we are members of His body.

³¹ For this reason a man will leave
his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two will become one flesh.^[i]

³² This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.  

So why don't we follow God's plan?

I believe it all boils down to trust. 

Wives who do not trust their husbands to love them like Christ loved the church constantly put their husband's love to the test.  A wife can test her husband by constantly wanting him to provide "more"...bigger house, newer car, more clothes, nicer vacation, etc. A wife who mistakes gifts for love might constantly use holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and such as opportunities for her husband to “prove” how much he loves her. A wife might constantly make her husband choose between time with her and time doing other things. She might test his loyalty by constantly challenging him to choose something she wants to do over something he already has planned. Notice that I intentionally use the word constantly. These are things that characterize a relationship, not things that happen once in a while.

Husbands who do not trust their wives to respect them demand respect. Men are not normally as manipulative as women. They usually demand respect in obvious ways. A husband might constantly remind the wife of how smart, strong, productive, etc. he is...or he might constantly remind her of how stupid, weak, and lazy she is. A husband who constantly feels the need to proclaim his superiority has need for respect and can sometimes act very much like a bully on a playground.  

 So then, how shall we live?

Wouldn't it be nice to be in a relationship where you are safe and secure, knowing that your spouse appreciates and cherishes who you are, wants the best for you, and sees the best in you? Wouldn't it be nice to be in a relationship with someone who appreciates the unique way God created you, including your temperament, personality, and emotions? (Granted, we all have a sinful nature that continually needs to be dealt with, and I am not in any way insinuating that sinful behavior should be accepted or overlooked.) I believe that is how God designed marriage…men get what they need (respect) and women get what they need (nurturing and being cared for). God designed marriage so that men can be men and women can be women.

I've learned that things work a lot better in my marriage when I choose to follow God's design. When we both follow God's design, things are great. I have also seen that God fills in the gaps when we fail.
It's a process, a journey, a constant battle to not become a statistic, but God shows us the blueprint for a good marriage. Respect your husband. Love your wife. Trust God and follow HIM wholeheartedly.