Word of Encouragement (9/25/2020)

Today, let’s reflect on God’s promise of strength in temptation.

Consider James 4:7: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” “If we submit to God, He promises without question that He will give us the strength to resist the devil until he flees from us, not because of who we are but because we are part of the Lord’s army, and He enables us to stand firm in His power in the evil day (Eph. 6:10-11, 13)” (p. 100). A crucial part of submitting ourselves to the Lord is to trust in His promise and start resisting the devil instead of saying, “But….”

How about Matt. 16:18? “…I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Jesus is not necessarily talking about every local church; He is talking about the invisible church, which is made up of all the elect people of God from all places and ages. “Yes, the devil is a roaring lion, but Christ is the lion of Judah…. The devil is subtle and crafty, but Christ is wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30)…. The devil is strong and powerful, but [the almighty] God will keep us safe from all harm (Pss. 60:12; 91:4; 1 Pet. 1:5)” (p. 101).

Not only do we have these promises; “the Lord [also] guarantees His promise through Christ’s shed blood. Hebrews 2:14-15 says Christ took on flesh so that ‘through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage’” (p. 101). Since Jesus died and rose again, we know that Jesus has already defeated the devil. When we fight under the banner of Christ, we do not fight to win; we fight to confirm our victory in Christ, which we already have. If so, victory over temptation and sin should be our norm, not our defeat. But we experience this victory when we act on what Christ has already done for us rather than our own history of defeat and failure; what Christ has promised to do for us in the present, not how weak we feel at the moment.

“The strength to overcome sin and the devil is a present reality. May God help us to believe and enjoy that promise” (p. 102).