“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 John 5:4
Who can win this battle against the world? Believers through Christ! Who is so sly that we might not know we are in battle? The devil and the evil world. This is how easily they begin a battle…We were at a rental that was just lovely, overlooking a beautiful pond. Idyllic country setting, except there were some odd knocking sounds coming from the locked garage. Could have been squirrels, or the heater, or an ice maker. But someone in our family suggested it was the last guests of the house who were kidnapped and now locked in the garage. (I think he watches too many scary movies.) We laughed, but I didn’t think it was especially funny. I didn’t believe it was true, but somewhere in my brain, a little fear crept in. The battle began and I didn’t even know it.
I had planned on walking the country dirt road a bit to look for meteors around 2:00am. Then, I woke up, thought about someone locked in the garage, and said to myself, “I’ve seen plenty of meteors before. I’ll just go back to bed.” I may have missed the most spectacular meteor of my life because a fearful and silly thought surfaced. That’s how the world likes to work on us. A silly little fear or anxiety creeps in and grows, sometimes nearly subconsciously. Most of the time, the fears we face are not as silly as this one, and that makes a prolonged battle even more dangerous. A thought pattern can be negatively set before we know it. We can be consciously drawn into a battle well after it has begun in our minds. Advantage – world.
Two thoughts on that. One, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” The Spirit can help us take thoughts captive earlier and earlier so we recognize the enemy and avoid some battles. And two, Jesus already won the battle for us! In His name and with His power over the world, we win. If I had remembered that at 2:00am, I may have posted a picture of a fireball meteor instead of the beautiful pond. Because I believe in Jesus, there’s hope for victory next time! ~Tracy