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“3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (2Cor 10)

You have had a busy day at work and now it’s time to go home. You board a bus and the FM radio on the bus has this talk show about the latest trending topic in town. You are not interested for all you are thinking is how you can have some quiet and just relax your system. You cannot seem to close your ears to the already too high volume of the bus stereo.

You consider another tactic and this time you reach for your phone and hope you can get some sobering inputs from your social circles. Fortunately the bus has some free Wi-Fi and therefore you do not have to spend your data bundles. The tactic seems to be working when you open the first social media site, until you realize that the last site you subscribed to, has about 10 affiliates that send daily updates to your email. This is depressing as you try to scheme through the now overflowing inbox which you cannot hope to ever read all emails. By the time you get to the house, all you want is a quiet time in your room. Luckily today, the rest of the family is away at the grandma’s place until tomorrow.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matt 11:28)

You put down everything and kneel down to pray. “Phew!”, you think to yourself, “at least I can now have some quiet”, but wait a minute, you might have celebrated too soon. As you try to give some focus to your prayer/meditation, another innocent sounding player in your mind starts speaking, “this would be a good time to fix the sink that has been leaking, or maybe watch that movie that you’ve been postponing to watch because you’ve not had time.”

The ‘innocent’ player moves from one proposition to another, and before you realize, it has been twenty minutes of battling with giving your complete focus to Jesus on the one hand and getting occupied with something ‘more useful’ on the other.

“..men ought always to pray, and not to faint;…..4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me… (Luke 18)

You do not give up because even with these many better sounding use of your time, deep down you know that there is no better place to be any time than the presence of Jesus. With persistence, the alternative thoughts seems to be giving in and you start thinking about the story of Mary and Martha and what Jesus said, “42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. (Luke 10.)”

Your previous thoughts about chores and activities you could otherwise be doing begin to be replaced by thoughts on scripture as you remember the story of the unjust judge and the persistent widow (Luke 18.)

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.(1Tim 6:12)

Beloved, what am I trying to communicate? It is my experience, and I believe that of every saint of a daily contention for ‘what is’ vs ‘what seems’. The enemy will use our thoughts, will, and emotions, mostly fed by happenings and circumstances around us to create a reality above what God has established eternally for His people by Christ Jesus.

Christ’s victory over the enemy of our souls is an indisputable, but we on the other hand have to apprehend it daily by faith. Why is this so difficult sometimes? It is because the enemy has some sort of partnership with our old nature (read un-renewed soul) to defeat our new nature (spirit). The battle/fight now becomes one of supremacy, as in who takes charge. Our spirit on the one hand is in tune with the Spirit of Christ and hence has capacity to bring the reality of peace and rest to us, while on the other hand, our soul is in contact with the natural world of troubles and anxiety. This battle we cannot win by our own selves, but thank God for Jesus, for the battle is not ours, it is the Lord’s.

Be encouraged brothers and sisters, for “…Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”(2Chr 20:15)

Love in Him,
Patrick