For the last few weeks I have been working on Spiritual Warfare and I feel that I need to highlight something very vital from it in the musings this month instead of the matter I previously promised to continue in the last issue.
One fact that I realized in a new light during the course of the meditations was that just like we take Satan as our enemy, he takes us as "his enemy" too. This knowledge is very crucial because many times we think of him as just being in the business of impeding or interrupting us on our way to Christ and ‘just that’ and nothing more. Whereas, on the contrary, he considers us as his sworn enemy and as the Bible says, all he earnestly desires is to kill us, steal from us and utterly destroy us.
However, there is something more amazing that emerges in the study of the enemy of our soul, something that perhaps has been showcased by God in the fabric of history especially in the scriptures. It’s the ‘Never Give Up’ attitude of the devil.
If we just plainly trace his steps from the time of his own fall, every time that he has been defeated or thrown out after humiliation, he has only stood up again with fervor and some kind of an undying hope in him that he can turn things around for himself and his troops only if he just keeps trying. The fact that he is warring God himself doesn’t deter him a bit. Not that I am glorifying his detestable act, but I surely am amazed by the grit he shows in rising up every time.
He has failed shamelessly, albeit after brief moments of victory, even to seemingly weak willed men like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah. He didn’t ‘Give Up’ when these men had glorious ends than what they probably deserved. He was driven away by Jesus from the wilderness but he came back to Jesus in facade of Pharisees, demon possessed people and even his very own disciples. He was shunned away every time but yet he returned with a vengeance and finally a Cross. He received a fatal blow in that his head was finally crushed at the Cross and the Resurrection but has he given up yet? For the 2000 years of church history and even now, he is still battling against the church, and he his also building up his forces for the great big war at Armageddon. The Bible says that he will rebel even after the Millennium! For someone who knows the Bible by-heart and knows that his fate is sealed and knows his destiny of the ‘Lake of Fire’, the fact that he apparently never worries, nor lets his troops to get paralyzed; in fact he keeps them amazingly motivated; is unbelievable. In fact he has only proved himself to be increasingly creative and effective in these present times.
I really don’t want anybody to misunderstand me for highlighting the least of all characters in the Bible to emulate, the devil himself. I am really amazed at his ‘Never Give Up’ attitude and actually this exposes his prime directive against us Christians – make us ‘Give Up’.
Oh! How easily we ‘Give Up’? How much does it take for us to give up on God and Christ our Lord and our Hope?
After having learnt about this, I always remind myself when I am pushed, ‘I will Never Give Up’. If the devil despite his hopeless destiny ‘Never Gives Up’, how can I let him make me ‘Give Up’! He is very crafty and will try anything to ensure that we ‘Give Up’ on God. I often used to wonder why Job’s wife was left out of the fury of Satan. But the words she spoke simply exposed his intention wonderfully. She said, "Job why don’t you ‘Give Up’? Curse your God and die?"!!
Let’s join with Job and also join with the choir of the cloud of witnesses who not through their song but through their lives have left a song across the centuries that echoes and resonates so loudly into our spirit’s ears, ‘Never, Never, Never, Never Give Up’. Help us Holy Spirit. God bless.
However, there is something more amazing that emerges in the study of the enemy of our soul, something that perhaps has been showcased by God in the fabric of history especially in the scriptures. It’s the ‘Never Give Up’ attitude of the devil.
If we just plainly trace his steps from the time of his own fall, every time that he has been defeated or thrown out after humiliation, he has only stood up again with fervor and some kind of an undying hope in him that he can turn things around for himself and his troops only if he just keeps trying. The fact that he is warring God himself doesn’t deter him a bit. Not that I am glorifying his detestable act, but I surely am amazed by the grit he shows in rising up every time.
He has failed shamelessly, albeit after brief moments of victory, even to seemingly weak willed men like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah. He didn’t ‘Give Up’ when these men had glorious ends than what they probably deserved. He was driven away by Jesus from the wilderness but he came back to Jesus in facade of Pharisees, demon possessed people and even his very own disciples. He was shunned away every time but yet he returned with a vengeance and finally a Cross. He received a fatal blow in that his head was finally crushed at the Cross and the Resurrection but has he given up yet? For the 2000 years of church history and even now, he is still battling against the church, and he his also building up his forces for the great big war at Armageddon. The Bible says that he will rebel even after the Millennium! For someone who knows the Bible by-heart and knows that his fate is sealed and knows his destiny of the ‘Lake of Fire’, the fact that he apparently never worries, nor lets his troops to get paralyzed; in fact he keeps them amazingly motivated; is unbelievable. In fact he has only proved himself to be increasingly creative and effective in these present times.
I really don’t want anybody to misunderstand me for highlighting the least of all characters in the Bible to emulate, the devil himself. I am really amazed at his ‘Never Give Up’ attitude and actually this exposes his prime directive against us Christians – make us ‘Give Up’.
Oh! How easily we ‘Give Up’? How much does it take for us to give up on God and Christ our Lord and our Hope?
After having learnt about this, I always remind myself when I am pushed, ‘I will Never Give Up’. If the devil despite his hopeless destiny ‘Never Gives Up’, how can I let him make me ‘Give Up’! He is very crafty and will try anything to ensure that we ‘Give Up’ on God. I often used to wonder why Job’s wife was left out of the fury of Satan. But the words she spoke simply exposed his intention wonderfully. She said, "Job why don’t you ‘Give Up’? Curse your God and die?"!!
Let’s join with Job and also join with the choir of the cloud of witnesses who not through their song but through their lives have left a song across the centuries that echoes and resonates so loudly into our spirit’s ears, ‘Never, Never, Never, Never Give Up’. Help us Holy Spirit. God bless.
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