Tug of War

Did you ever play this as a kid? Two opposing teams facing each other, each attempting, with all their strength to pull the other team over to their side. It’s a fun game, but in our spiritual world, it’s a serious event with either pleasant or unpleasant consequences. In Galatians 5:16 we are wisely instructed with these words, “Let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves” (NLT). We have the Holy Spirit on one side, and our enemy on the other. One pulls us toward holy and happy living; the other toward evil and despondent living.

Notice this verse doesn’t say we won’t ever be tempted. We’re going to be coaxed to turn away from the Light in favor of the dark side as long as we are living on this earth. Temptations finally cease when we see Jesus face to face, and live with Him for eternity in Heaven. Until then, we are in a tug of war. Even so, we see the way to absolute victory in the verse above. Let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. How do we do that? It all depends upon what fills our mind; what is our focus. Our greatest example of this coms from Jesus Himself. In Matthew 4:1-11, we read of the time Jesus was tempted by Satan. It was a huge tug of war, but Jesus came out the winner. What weapon did He use? God’s own Word. The Word of God guarantees victory with every temptation.

Temptations are cruel as they appeal to our flesh naturally. We are weak to these natural fleshly desires. That’s why we need something stronger than the the natural; we need the supernatural, we need the Holy Spirit and the Word of God which is the Sword of the Lord. God’s Sword cuts down every evil thought and every temptation. Using this Sword we can conquer the toughest tug of war planned by any of Satan’s attacking demons. Victory over temptation isn’t a “maybe” thing, it’s a certain triumph — when we use the Sword of the Lord.

Let us take hold of what Paul wrote to encourage us in II Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (NIV).

Let us firmly decide to not let a day go by that we don’t spend time sharpening our spiritual sword. Without it we cannot win; with it we have certain victory. Victory is always accompanied by God’s own joy and peace. May you walk in the joy and peace of victory today.