Use God’s Armor

To me the Christian life is nothing unless it is a battlefield. It is not all battlefield, but the spoil is wrested from the enemy on the battlefield of faith. Armor, shield, sword—for what are these if there is no battle? Are we to use a sword on our friends? Alas! it seems that some souls will do that rather than resist the devil. They will resist the Lord’s witness and oppose anything that interferes with their own purposes and plans, but as for obeying the divine command that will save them from the devil’s snares and make them, through the power of God, deliverers of others, that is either heresy or for someone else.

I would not write in this vein if I had not seen the terrible havoc wrought by this awful neglect. Some are awakening to the reality of the situation through the crucible of painful experiences in their home, or circle, or church; but let us not wait until the devil is deeply entrenched before we begin to resist him.

There is nothing to fear. Fear of this kind belongs to the pit and is one of the devil’s favorite weapons. “In nothing terrified by your adversaries,”* (Philippians 1:28) says the apostle. “Be strong [be made powerful] in the Lord, and in the power of his might”* (Ephesians 6:10)—that is sufficient. “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”* (1 John 4:4) Remember that God wants to do this through you.