Recap
In this last
session:
- We watched Pricilla Shirer's
first video "Sizing Up the Enemy" and talked very briefly about
the first week of the study book. (Week 1, pages 8–37)
- We passed around a notebook
and asked the ladies in the group to write down their prayer requests so
we could email them to everyone who shared their email address with the
group.
- I later snapped photos of the
notebook pages and sent them out to the ladies' email addresses.
- I also got our Facebook group
started: Armor of God Study--First AG--2018
Thoughts On Standing Firm and Being Strong
Today, I prayed over
each request in the list. As I prayed, I found myself repeating the same
prayers over and over—Lord, may they find you. Lord, may they seek you. Lord,
may they put their trust in you. Etc.
As I read the
requests, I recalled from our study that to our enemy, the trials, suffering,
and struggles we all face are opportunities to "bring us down." This
is EXACTLY why Paul admonishes us as he does in
Ephesians
6 (ESV):
- Be strong (vs 10)
- Stand, stand firm (vs 13)
- Stand (vs 14)
Here are some other
places in the Bible where we as believers are admonished or encouraged to stand
firm, hold fast, be strong, etc.—the contexts vary, but the message is overall
clear. We are expected to stand firm in our faith in Jesus Christ. Please note
that the links I have provided go to the entire chapter so that you may read
the verse in context. Remember that context is very important as you study the
Word of God:
Saints, I may not
have gone through exactly the same situations and trials you are suffering, but
I have certainly been through some very painful trials. So what I am about to
say, I am saying in love:
Stand firm. Do NOT cave in. (More on this in a sec…)
Get it into your
heart and your mind that when you face the battle, you face it from a position
of victory. You are not fighting FOR victory…you are fighting FROM victory.
- See page 20 in Shirer's book: "Once you've placed faith in Jesus, you are now transported with Christ to a position of victory. In
other words, you have the home court advantage."
- See also page 68 in the book The
Invisible War by
Chip Ingram: "Spiritual warfare is never an attempt to gain victory.
It is standing firm in what we already possess."
The original trial
you are suffering may or may not be placed upon you by the enemy, but you
better believe he is taking full advantage of it to take you down, to take down
your family, your friends, those you love and care about.
Doesn't that make
you mad? It sure makes me mad!
Here's a bit of
irony that I don't think most people really "get"…to stand firm
against all the attacks of the enemy, you need to bow down before God.
Saints, if you are
not surrendered before God—face down before Him in humility—then you cannot
possibly win this battle.
To put it another
way…if you are to have any hope of standing firm, you'd better be on your
knees.
Many years ago, I
faced a situation that hit me really, really hard. I thought it would destroy
me. The enemy took full advantage of it, too. He tortured me and pestered me
and would NOT leave me alone. He tried several strategies. He keyed in on my
weakest places and hit me the hardest there. It was, to date, the worst battle
I have ever faced.
My only defense was
to fall at my savior's feet and give Him all of my weaknesses. Most of the
time, I had no idea how to pray or what to pray, so mostly, I just talked to
Him and cried out to Him. I had to ask Him for His help over and over and over,
to resist the temptations to collapse in despair and allow pain, anxiety, and
emotion to rule me. I was years in that battle.
But submission
before God and clinging to a feeble faith was the key to standing against the
enemy. It really is ironic, isn’t it? The weaker I was, the more I had to cling
to God…and the more He could pour His strength into me.
Any strength I have
today was acquired during those years of battle. Don't misunderstand me…I am
not taking credit for that strength. It comes from God. The enemy continually
tests it, like one of those Jurassic Park raptors testing the fences for weaknesses.
He gets through sometimes, when he finds particular weaknesses, but if I cry
out to God while it is happening, the Lord comes through.
This is why Paul
says that weaknesses make him strong, as evidenced by the "thorn in the
flesh" he was subject to:
So to keep me from becoming
conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was
given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from
becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more
gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses,
insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then
I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7–10 (ESV)
Please remember—and
this is meant to comfort you—that suffering ultimately produces character, and
hope. As believers, our suffering leads to good things:
Through him we have
also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,
and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces
character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to
shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:2–5 (ESV)
Remember also how
infinitely powerful God is. In the lives of believers, what the enemy intends
for evil, God turns for good:
And we know that for those who
love God all things work together for good, for those who are
called according to his purpose.Romans 8:28 (ESV)
And how powerful is
God? Well, saints, let me share the most hopeful verse I have ever encountered
about the mighty power of God--in reference to the faith of Abraham, Paul wrote
this about the power of God:
[The
God] who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that
do not exist. Romans
4:17 (ESV)
God creates
something out of absolutely nothing. This is the power that we have access to.
God is on our side, saints. The enemy cannot possibly stand up to Him.
Don’t Dwell in the "Why?"
Saints, when you are
struggling, do you ever cry out, "WHY???" I sure did. If you need to
ask God why, and maybe even get a little mad at God--after all, He knew this
was going to happen to you--that may be a phase you need to go through. I definitely
went through it, and God allowed me to. He didn’t strike me with lightning
bolts or hit me with his wrath. Instead, He let me cry out before Him about how
much it hurt, and He let me ask Him why I was going through it.
But—and this is
REALLY important—do not stay there. Don't "dwell" in that state of
"why?" Chances are, you are not going to get an answer in this
lifetime. This might be one of your temptations, and one of the areas where the
enemy will prey upon you in your weakness, to stay in the "why" mode
and never get past it. It causes you to despair, and robs you of the healing
God wants to bring to your spirit.
And of course, it
delights the enemy. He wants to keep you in "why" mode, because when
you are in that mode, you have zero chance of being a threat to him.
This is why the
writer of Hebrews says:
strengthen
your feeble arms and weak knees. Hebrews
12:12 (NIV)
The fact that God is
allowing you to walk through the struggle may be, in part, a discipline He is
trying to teach you. It's not necessarily something God Himself sent upon you,
but He is allowing you to go through it. He didn't put a stop to it. We may never
really know for sure, but the Bible does tell us that hardship may be
discipline—NOT punishment. Rather, God, by allowing you to face this trial, is
causing you to become stronger.
I know, that's a
difficult pill to swallow when you are in the middle of a very painful
situation, but I hope it can comfort you
to know that nothing you are going through is outside of the power of God.
Benefiting Others
God wants you to
grow and to thrive, and to learn to walk in His mighty power. Who knows, but
just as he refused to remove Paul's thorn in the flesh so that a greater good
could be accomplished, He may need you to walk through this fiery trial because
someone out there is going to enter the kingdom of God because of it.
Did you catch that?
Your pain could ultimately result in another person being saved from hell.
God can—and
will—use your pain to bring others into the Kingdom of God, if you will allow
Him to do so. He's given you free will. You can choose what you will do with
your suffering. If you humble yourself before the Lord and lay it all at His
feet, if you make a choice to not purposefully dwell in despair, but instead,
take all those painful feelings and bring them before God, He will use you and
your experiences to rescue others from hell. This is why it is really important
to lay your life down before the Lord and tell Him, as Isaiah did:
Here
I am! Send me. Isaiah
6:8 (ESV)
When you face
suffering, and when you face enemy attack, tell God you want Him to use this
trial for the ultimate good. Consider that in this lifetime, your life can be
completely ruined by any number of terrible things. Given that a life without
hardship is not promised to us, the very best thing you can do is ask God to
fulfill His purpose in Your life, and keep your eyes on eternity. Hold
everything in this world loosely.
Saints, not a single
one of you is without purpose. God has a plan and a purpose for each of you,
but to have that purpose fulfilled, you
must seek Him for it. Ask Him to accomplish it. And in so doing, He will ensure
that your suffering is not for nothing.
Remember that Paul
calls our sufferings "light momentary affliction" and gives us the
assurance that everything we go through is "preparing us for an eternal
weight of glory":
But we have this treasure in jars of
clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to
us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but
not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck
down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of
Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our
bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus'
sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal
flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Since we have the same spirit of faith according
to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe,
and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord
Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his
presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends
to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is
wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by
day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an
eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the
things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are
seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:7–18 (ESV)
Regarding the
"momentary" aspect of our suffering…I don’t know about you, but when
I go through something really painful, it FEELS like eternity. So Paul has a
reality check for us: the sufferings we go through are not worth comparing to
eternity with Christ:
For
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth
comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans
8:18 (ESV)
Conclusion
Saints, be
encouraged. If you are going through a trial, God still has you in the palm of
His hand. Nothing in God's economy is wasted. He can take the worst thing you
go through, and ultimately use it so He is glorified. People can be saved
because of your trial, if only you will submit yourself to the purposes of God.
THIS is how you
stand strong in the face of enemy attack. None of this comes from your own
strength. When Paul tells us to be strong, he follows it up with "in His
mighty power." It’s not your power, saints. It's His. Fall on your face
before Him. Cry out to Him, and He promises He WILL strengthen you, and that
nothing, NOTHING you go through will go to waste.
Prayer
Oh, Lord, I pray for
my brothers and sisters in Christ who are going through rough waters. God, You
see each pain and each tear we cry. I pray that you would comfort them and help
them as they walk through their sufferings and trials. May they turn to you and
seek your purpose in their lives.
Thank you that
nothing we as believers go through is wasted. Please embed this truth in their
hearts. May they fall before You in submission and seek Your purpose in their
lives. Please pour your peace out on them. Please use their pain for a greater
good, and may they receive a tremendous heavenly reward, after all is said and
done.
Lord, as the enemy
zeroes in on their weaknesses, I pray that You would be their defender. May we
as believers lift one another up in prayer and encourage one another with Your
Word. May those in pain cry out to you and allow you to walk them through it and
provide Your strength so that they may stand firm in the face of attack. Teach
us to cling to Your Word and to persevere in prayer.
Thank you so much
for this opportunity to minster. May these words be used to glorify you and
bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is in the mighty name of
Jesus I pray, Amen.
