July 1

Battle

 

But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.––1 John 4:4, NLT

 

So, every day we battle. No one needs to remind us of this. Sometimes the battle begins the moment I open my eyes in the morning. The stress of (fill in the blank) seems constant some days. The word “peace” spoken by your pastor Sunday morning can feel a lot different on Monday morning at 10:00am, right?

 

So, every day we battle. We’ve all heard the expression, “They lost the battle but won the war.” I think the antidote to daily battling—whether the battle has to do with a flagging marriage, tension with a child, a difficult boss, more month than paycheck—is buried in that expression.

 

Here’s the last page of this novel: Jesus already won the war, we are on the winning side, and everything we do on this earth is from the position of the victor. You may be thinking, “Kenny, that does me absolutely no good. Give me something I can actually use in reality each day.”

 

Okay, I get it. Life IS hard then we die. Accept that fact, and then live in the only reality that matters: You are already a victor. The time you spend here battling—wounds, trauma, lust, greed, the enemy, etc.—is from a position of victory. We are not Napoleon defeated at Waterloo; we are Robert the Bruce and the Scots driving the English out of Scotland. Positionally victorious. Seated securely in the win column. Paul says our battle (yes, there is a battle) is not against flesh or blood, but against the demonic realm.

 

It starts and ends in your head. If the enemy gets into your head, he can capture your heart. Don’t let him trick you into thinking that the war is still raging. He knows that’s the key and will use propaganda (“the war is not over”) and a rigged press (the lies he tells you about your identity) to convince you that the war has yet to be decided.

 

So, every day we battle. But at this stage, the enemy has been defeated and we are conducting mop-up operations. Skirmishes and battles, yes, but a war that has already been won at the peace table called Calgary.

 

Father, I surrender my battles to You today. You know what they are. Help me fight them from the position of the victor, rather than the victim.