Instead, they are in hot pursuit of our faith, our children, our unity, and our righteousness, seeking to continuously keep us caught up in silly affairs and void of hope. (Hollywood didn’t make that part up.) The spiritual forces of evil are not sitting around twiddling their thumbs. There is a battle going on that we can’t see-one of good and evil. So let’s set the record straight right now: God is real. I’m just a figment of your imagination-a crazy bit of hocus-pocus not worth your time.” “It’s the fact that you don’t have enough money or haven’t lost the baby weight or don’t have the house you want or didn’t say the right thing. “Oh, it’s not me,” says the evil one, “It’s your husband.” “Oh, it’s not me,” says the father of lies, “It’s your co-worker.” And what’s the goal of every lying, thieving, scheming con artist out there? To make you think it wasn’t him. But if we believe God and His angels are real, why wouldn’t we believe the devil and his demons are real? The Bible tells us the devil is a great deceiver and the father of lies. It feels weird to say there are spiritual forces of evil out to get us. While a vicious, life-threatening enemy rips our marriages to shreds, sequesters our children, lays siege to our government, places victory banners on our schools, and engages our media to do his dirty work. All the while, we sit back and watch, unprepared and inappropriately “dressed” for the fight. Yet, out of comfort and complacency we tend to treat Christianity more like a sleepover with popcorn and brownies. Instead, the Christian life is a war zone-a fierce battle of spiritual influence-and we need to be ready. Paul is encouraging us to daily live in the strength of our Almighty God because the Christian life is not a tea party, a backyard barbecue, or a perpetual classroom. The idea is active, face-to-face warfare. The word for “wrestle” in verse 12 (or maybe your Bible uses the word “struggle” or “fight”) is the word for hand-to-hand combat. Then he gives the reason in verse 12: “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.” We Need God’s StrengthĪt the end of the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul tells believers to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” by putting on the armor of God (Eph. Did my son have more faith than me? Did I have the same confidence in God’s strength? Was I as settled in my thinking as he was? It challenged me to think my son was more prepared to face the day than I was. Just like that, his childlike faith stopped me in my tracks. “And how do you expect mommy to carry a pumpkin as big as the world? Daddy’s not here to carry it, remember? The youngest (four years old at the time) looked at me with his melt-worthy chocolate eyes and promptly announced, “Mommy, I’m getting a pumpkin as big as the world!” So that year, I decided the usual picture of my kids in front of the cart return at our local grocery store holding their (store-bought) prize pumpkins just wasn’t going to cut it. More than likely, it means she’s taking the kids alone.
ARMOR OF GID PATCH
While this might sound like a completely normal adventure, a day trip to the pumpkin patch during harvest is not an easy task for any farmer’s wife. (7 sessions).One fall day a few years back, I decided I needed to be like everyone else on social media and take my kids to the pumpkin patch. The Armor of God, more than merely a biblical description of the believer's inventory, is an action plan for putting it on and developing a personalized strategy to secure victory. The Enemy always fails miserably when he meets a woman dressed for the occasion. If you're tired of being pushed around and caught with your guard down, The Armor of God study is for you. But his battle plan depends on catching you unaware and unarmed. A devoted, devilish enemy seeks to wreak havoc on everything that matters to you: your heart, your mind, your marriage, your children, your relationships, your resilience, your dreams, your destiny. All day, every day, an invisible war rages around you unseen, unheard, yet felt throughout every aspect of your life.
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