Strength In Weakness

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 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 6:10-12

We are subject to the influence of these world rulers of present darkness through our mind, our feelings, and our deeds. We need to understand how this works: Through the channel of the mind the devil makes his appeal to human pride. We regard our reason as the greatest gift God has given to man — and not without justification. Obviously it is our ability to reason, to hold abstract concepts and relate them one to another, which makes us superior to the animals and separates us from the rest of the creation. We take pride in this ability to reason. It is through appeal to our pride that the devil influences us along the channel of the mind.

Through the emotions, he works on our fears. Emotion is really our most human characteristic. We like to think it is through our logic and reason that we govern ourselves, but this is not true. We are really governed by our emotions, our urges, our desires, our deep-seated, sometimes subconscious wants. It is through these that the devil makes his appeal to us by playing on our fears. We are so afraid we will miss out on life in some way, or will be hurt by some sacrifice for God's sake.

In the realm of deeds the devil makes his appeal to pleasure, for the body is essentially sensuous, i.e., it is designed by God to respond to stimuli. We learn early in life that there are certain stimuli which are very pleasurable, while others are unpleasant. We learn to seek the pleasant and reject or avoid the unpleasant. So the body is constantly seeking after that which thrills or excites or pleases in some way, and turning away from that which hurts or injures or causes some degree of unpleasant reaction. Thus the devil makes his appeal through the realm of our deeds.

Perhaps this makes you ask yourself, Who can hope to win against such a variety of ways of attack that we don't even recognize are wrong? Who can even grasp, let alone answer, these subtle and powerful attacks against human life? Does it leave you feeling rather discouraged? If it does, then let me say you have not understood what Paul is saying here. His word to us is to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. There is a provision made. Perhaps the most healthy attitude we could have in the face of this revelation is to be overpoweringly aware of our sense of weakness. It is when we recognize we are weak that we're ready to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, and we are ready to give intelligent consideration to what that is, and how to do it.

Forgive me, Lord, for trying to fight his battle in my own strength. Teach me to be strong in you as I face the powerful attacks of the enemy. Amen.