Life During Wartime
5 min read
14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
— Nehemiah 4:14
Spiritually speaking, there is a battle raging all around us all the time. Some people may find this kind of language to be overblown and alarmist, designed to manipulate church members into devoting more of their time, money, and other resources to the church. Of course, that would also mean having to give up some of the “comforts” and “pleasures” of life.
Maybe there is something to this complaint, considering that Christian communities are called to promote peace, joy, and love in this world. How are we supposed to do that if we are always at war with the world?
However, it would not be prudent to deny or disregard the spiritual warfare that is going on. At the same time, it would not be prudent to engage in this warfare with bitter condemnation or other hateful behavior, either.
The stakes are really high. The spoils of this war in the spiritual realms are the souls of people—and most urgently for each and every one of us, the souls of our families, especially our children and future children.
And so we really should fight our spiritual battles in the way that God tells us to—that is, with our hands raised in worship, on our knees in prayer, with our lives bearing witness to Jesus Christ. That is what the whole armor of God passage is about in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (6:10-20).
And it’s worth reminding ourselves that the letter to the Ephesians is all about the church. The devil has been very persuasive in making many people think that the church is little more than a social institution. But the devil has not had to work very hard because there is no systemic persecution of Christians in our society.
In other words, Christians in the free world do not directly feel the persecution against them. And so while Christians are not being burned at the stake, they are being slowly cooked like a frog.
As believers, we need to be reminded often that every local church community is a refugee camp for the redeemed and a warship of worshippers. We need to have that perspective and mindset as we engage in the spiritual battle.
Father, we know that You have claimed the victory already in Christ Jesus. Help us to recognize the spiritual battle around us. Teach us to fight this battle according to Your way fitted with the gospel. Encourage us so that we will not fear, but rather, worship You confidently and bear witness to our Lord Jesus Christ boldly. In Jesus’s name. Amen.