Demolishing Strongholds

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

2 Corinthians 10:4

Paul uses in this passage the word strongholds. This is the only place in the New Testament that this word is found, but it is an easy word to understand because it is made up of root words which literally mean a place of strength. It is a place where evil is entrenched, where it is fortified, protected behind strong defenses. It is not out in the open easily exposed and overthrown, but is well defended, a fortress with walls and moats and turrets, difficult to attack.

Do we face situations like that today? Are there situations in your experience as an individual or in society in general, where evil is entrenched like this? Long-standing evil, protected and defended by a segment of society, resisting all attempts to overthrow it, persisting in holding thousands in bondage, darkness, misery and despair? Are there places like that? You know there are — on every side today.

America is full of such strongholds. Racism is that kind of a stronghold. Bigotry seizes the minds of people and discrimination against individuals because of the color of their skin impacts everything that is done. Often such discrimination is defended in the name of Jesus, despite the clear pronouncements in Scripture against it.

Materialism is another. Materialism is the love of things. If you read thoughtfully the passages in the New Testament that deal with the Christian's attitude toward things and the world, you will discover how the love of things blinds, debases, and blunts the capacity for life. It reduces human beings to nothing but comfortable animals, living for pleasure and for the fleeting moment. It ends in life becoming shallow and superficial, filled with expressions of greed.

Pride is another stronghold. Pride can erect a barrier between people who live together. Husbands will not speak to their wives; wives shut their husbands out of their lives. They will not communicate because of an impassable gulf created by pride. Parents are isolated from their children, and children from parents, by gulfs of non-communication stretching wide between them, impassable and impossible to cross.

Immorality is a similar problem. Here is a stronghold of evil. Sexual perversion! What a terrible thing it is and what a despairing cry is going up from people today who are in the grip of perverse practices, and who are looking for help. Surely here is an area where the church ought to be speaking, where these weapons of righteousness should be turned loose.

Lord, please give me eyes to see the strongholds all around me, including in my own family and my own heart. Give me a heart to pray for evil to be defeated in these entrenched places of evil.