Warfare

"Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war on your soul."

A constant battle is being waged for the spiritual health of your soul. The enemy will do anything to sabotage your relationship with your Savior and Lord. Anything. To win the battle--and it is fought day by day--I must embrace three truths. First, I am His beloved. I am "the love of His life." For me He suffered and died. For me He testifies, "I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting." All so He could claim me as His beloved. Greater love has no man. As His beloved then, I must crucify the flesh. Abstain from those things that the world wants me to believe are more worthy of my passion than obedience to His love, than obedience to the One who calls me His own.
Second, I must embrace the plea, the urgency of obedience. I must begin each day prayerfully putting on the whole armor of God. Only by being clothed in His power, only by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ can I resist the darts of the enemy. His methods are subtle and enticing. He tempts me with "good things" so that he can subvert them into the evil wounds that burden my soul, that hinder my sense of my Master's presence. When the most urgent passion in my life is no longer a passion for His well-done, I so easily give my love to other gods--all of them disguised as my "I wants," as my "I've got to have."
And finally, I must embrace the truth that I am a sojourner and an exile in this world. The temporary, materialistic, things of earth must not become my treasures. This is not Home. As His faithful soldier, I must not become entangled by the things of this world. I must not be enticed by the tawdry neon lights of the world's bizarre. I must walk in the light. I must walk in the Spirit. I must take up my cross and follow Him. i must walk by faith. I must walk the Enoch walk. I must be in step with the Man of Sorrows. The only other path is the path of thorns--thorns that pierce my soul, turn my faith into defeat, make me weary of well-doing.
The battle rages. My soul's peace is at stake. But I am His beloved. And I have taken off the old robes and put on Jesus Christ. I am armed for the warfare. Victoriously, I am strengthened by the Spirit. enabled to walk as Jesus walked, empowered to walk with my eyes fixed on Him--to march on step by step toward Home and the wonders of His smile.

Beloved.

I urge you.

As aliens and exiles.

Abstain--fight the good fight of faith.

"Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ."