By David ReayThursday 30 Apr 2020LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are. (NLT)
In a generally comfortable world, it is easy to forget that our world is a place of battle. C.S. Lewis says that there is no neutral ground in the entire universe. Our God and his fierce adversary, the Satan, fight over every piece of it.
On one level, we fight against poverty, injustice, plague, and war. We rightly take what steps need to be taken to combat these things. On another level, we are fighting spiritual battles against cosmic, unseen, demonic powers. God is out to bless and enrich life. His enemy is out to destroy life and will use any means that come to hand.
Some might wonder why the battle continues since God is all-powerful. Can’t he wipe out the enemy and make things come right? This is to misunderstand God’s power. God is presently not bringing human history to an end—though one day he will and we need to be ready. God is limiting his power to enable human beings to live as free human beings. He will not use his power to enforce goodness and obliterate evil in this present age.
We might wish it to be otherwise, but we live in the world given to us not the world we might insist upon. God will win in the end, but the end is not yet. The war has certainly been won, but battles remain to be fought.
Blessings
David