Perseverance… Keep on keeping’ on. Get back in the saddle. Shake it off. Keep on truckin’. However you phrase it, the message is the same…
Endurance. Persistence. In Greek, the original language of New Testament scripture, it is ‘hupomone’. It is a bearing up under, an enduring as to things or circumstances… patience and constancy under suffering in faith and duty.
“..prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind of drops out.” (Eph. 6:18 The Message)
I want never to forget the reality of the battle ground on which I stand. There IS a spiritual war going on. There IS a battle of good vs. evil. The enemy is still assaulting God’s creation. He is defeated, but until he is cast into the abyss, he continues to deceive and lie. How tiring it gets sometimes. I hear him trying to tell me it’s useless. It is NOT.
My God is bigger than any demon. He is bigger than any stronghold. He is mightier than any addiction. He is able to heal any hurt, any painful thing.
The only thing that stops Him is our refusal. I wrestle sometimes with the free choice He has given, wishing that in some situations He’d take that free will away and insist on better choices. He would not be holy and perfect were He to do that….and we would not have a capacity to love, we would be mere robots. So I stand on the battlefield, suited up with the armor of God.(Ephesians 6:13-17)
I have the belt of truth. The enemy’s lies will not pierce me.
My heart is shielded with the breastplate of HIS righteousness, not my own.
My feet are fitted with readiness.
I have a shield of faith in the God of creation with which I can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
My mind is protected by the helmet of my salvation, the enemy’s lies will not enter my mind and cause me to be deceived.
And I have the Sword of The Holy Spirit of God
.
I know what He has said, and I will use the authority that is mine in Jesus Christ to
speak that Word to all the demonic forces of the spiritual realm.
“Pray for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel…pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” (Eph. 6:19,20)
