Submit and Win the Battle

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War RoomI was inspired and challenged by the movie WAR ROOM that the church family recently went to see. The movie was a reminder that we need to be firmly rooted in God’s Word to stand against Satan’s attacks, and victory is ours only when we SUBMIT to God’s authority.

Bro. Rick has started a series of sermons based upon Galatians 2:20. I think this verse is so pertinent at this time as a reminder to believers what the walk of faith is all about.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

The other verse that came to mind after viewing WAR ROOM is James 4:7.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

The first thing we must do as followers of Christ is crucify our selfish desires — murder them, bury them, and then dance on their grave! We have victory not because of what we have done but because JESUS CHRIST has won it for us. To God be the glory!

Next, we must SUBMIT ourselves to God. That is even harder than crucifying our selfish desires, although the two walk hand in hand. Submission is about yielding to a Superior Force (God) and His authority. It’s giving Him control and acknowledging He has the power.

The verse goes on to say …Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Notice this wasn’t the first part of the verse. The verse began with SUBMIT YOURSELVES TO GOD then came the part about resisting the devil and his fleeing. We cannot have victory or success resisting Satan’s attacks and enticements without living a life of submission to Almighty God! When we do live lives of submission to our Creator we are empowered to resist Satan and all his temptations and assaults and when we do …Satan …flees. How cool is that?

Now, as was pointed out in WAR ROOM, there are two things Christians need to be successful in defending themselves against the villainous attacks of Satan. First we need PRAYER. Not just the simple 30 second prayers we offer before a meal but real, legitimate, sincere prayers that come from a broken submissive heart toward a Holy, Pure and Loving God! Whether that happens in a WAR ROOM (prayer closet) or on your back porch, in the bathroom, in your living room or at your dining table — wherever it happens, it needs to happen with sincere focus!

Secondly, we must be GROUNDED in GOD’S WORD. In a time when we are surrounded as believers with studies about God’s Word and multiple self-help devotions, books and Bible studies it seems we have drifted farther and farther away from a deep rooted knowledge of that Word. When we do read it we don’t let it saturate us so that it impacts our daily walk. We need to spend more time meditating on it, memorizing it and mulling over it throughout our day.

I know I have not always spent as much time as I should, committing to memory the wonderful truths of God’s Word. This is something I have determined to change. As I walked this morning I meditated on Galatians 2:20 and on James 4:7 as two focal verses for my day. I plan to make this a habit. Pray that I stay the course!

I think the last thing I took away from WAR ROOM was the idea of MENTORSHIP. The grandmotherly figure in the movie asked God to send her someone to mentor and God was faithful; and WOW what a blessing to both herself and the person she mentored! We who have been walking with God for many years need to be proactive in seeking from God those we can mentor. It’s walking with them, loving them, getting to know them and investing time with them. It’s inviting them to come along with us.

I hope you were challenged as well from this inspiring movie and maybe in ways I haven’t mentioned. Let’s not allow it to end there. Let’s identify ways we can be truly impacted by the truths of it and also ways we can impact others for the Kingdom!

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FOCUSED

One of the casualties of aging to which I find myself a victim is the dimming of the eyes.  Ecclesiastes 12 counsels the young person to remember God, their Creator, in their youth before the aging process takes over and various faculties, as listed in verses 1-7, are diminished.

Clear eyesight when we are young may be something we take for granted. However, as we age the realization that our vision is not as sharp as it once was takes hold. “Readers” become standard fare for all intricate tasks. Our once keen laser sharp focus is now blurry and in need of help to restore its youthfulness. That restoration is found through glasses or some sort of rejuvenating surgery. Especially in the early stages of this degenerative eye problem we may be able to fake it and get by, but eventually we must relent and do something to correct the problem.

There is a parallel between physical and spiritual vision. “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” was written in the early 20th century. The hymn writer, Helen Lemmel, was strongly influenced by the artist and later little-known missionary, Lilias Trotter. Miss Trotter started off as an aspiring artist but early on felt a call from God to reach the lost. She began her ministry by rescuing prostitutes from the streets of London. Later she went to Africa, without missionary funding, and served for over forty years. While there she penned a poem that would greatly influence the writing of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”  The poem was entitled “Focused: A Story and Song.” 

The poem centers around focusing one’s attentions fully and completely upon God. She writes that Satan knows that if a person uses all their powers of concentration on being led by God’s Spirit, they will have a great intensity and impact upon those to whom they are called to minister. Lilias Trotter, writing in a more formal use of the English language than we are accustomed, shares some timeless insights which could very easily have been written today but with a different accent. She writes: “Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the ‘good’ hiding the ‘best’ even more effectually than it could be hidden downright frivolity with its smothered heartache at its own emptiness.”

The “good” hiding the “best” leads us to emptiness.  Could this be true of us today especially as American Christians? Have we sought the “good” while missing the “best”? The chorus of the hymn, which we will be singing in worship this Sunday, says it best.

                Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face,                                                                                                                                        And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Keith Pate

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