In The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis speaks of the human self being comprised of two parts. The spiritual and the bodily. If that is true, which I believe it is (I mean, how can you argue with a guy like C.S. Lewis??), then wouldn’t it make sense that we live in both worlds?
In case you haven’t noticed, our bodily world is a battleground. Not just the big wars and the violent conflicts all over the world. But what about all the supposed ” little things” that happen in everyday life? Traffic, family, government, and traffic. Did I mention traffic? Oh well, that’s another thing. The point is, our world is a battleground and not all of the battles are the fault of people. Any guesses as to who the being might be that causes such things as corruption, terrorism, and doubt?
Now that the gears are turning (mine are still a bit rusty) let’s take a look at the flipside of our existence, our spirituality. If you don’t know this already, the spiritual world is a battleground (oh, the redundancy). But it is not a battle that mere people engage in. No, it’s a battle of Good and Evil. As cliche as it sounds, it really is. What’s more is, the battle continually spills over into the bodily world (i.e. traffic, the omnipresent warzone).
For those of you that doubt the presence of the devil in everyday struggles, let me share this from Revelations 12:7-9
“Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back,” See what I mean about a battle? “but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. the huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who decieved the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown with it.”
What was that last bit? Where were Satan and his followers thrown? “Down to earth.”
The battle is here. Now, at this very moment. Satan sees God moving in us and he HATES it. He will throw everything he’s got into trying to make us pull away from God. But I have great news. God is doing the EXACT same things, only he uses his power to bring us closer to Him.
But God will not force us to grow close to him. He will not enter and transform our heart unless we give him permission. He is not forceful, he is a gentleman.
More good news, we are not unarmed in our fight. We will look over what we have to use later.
Please comment,
Louis
I owe the credit for this post to John Eldredge, author of Wild at Heart.
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