Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Call for Backup
A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
—Ephesians 6:10
During some of my childhood, we lived in New Jersey. One day, I was walking down the street with my newly acquired six-shooter cap guns, a little holster, and a little cowboy hat, feeling very good. But there were some hoodlums standing on the corner who took notice of the little cowboy. They started pushing me around, knocked off my hat, and confiscated my gun belt and cap pistols. Devastated, I went home and found my brother, who is five years older than me. He went with me to get my things back, and all of a sudden, I was feeling courageous. My brother was bigger than me—and them. So I retrieved my cap guns and holster, and it felt really good. The problem was that I had to keep my brother with me from that point on.
We can have greater boldness in spiritual battle when we know we are standing with the Lord. Ephesians 6:10 tells us, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." Or literally, "Strengthen yourselves in the Lord." In our own strength, we are no match for the devil. We don't want to engage him. Just as the police call for backup when they need to, we need to do the same.
That is why the devil wants to separate us from our powerbase. His chief aim is to get between us and God and to inspire confidence in ourselves. But Jesus Christ himself is in our corner. Romans 8:33 says, "Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself."
God is with us. We are not taking on the enemy in our own strength; we are standing in the Lord and in His mighty power.
Copyright © 2010 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
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