“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in
the power of his might.” – Ephesians 6:10
The Word of God is full of
inescapable truths. Often times statements are made within the scriptures
may appear, at face value, as optional, but in fact they are mandatory.
The scripture found above is one of many such statements. It tells us to
“be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” At first glance
this may seem a suggestion or optional course of action, however, if you want
to live for God and make it to a home in heaven, it is a truth that must be
lived out; it is inescapable.
The strength to combat the
devil and live victorious in this life can only be found in Jesus and in the
power of His might; because of this the devil conveniently tries to make us
believe the contrary. He would have us begin to think that we can
withstand anything; he would have us believe that we are strong.
Furthermore, society and the world we live in do not aid us in combating this
line of thinking. All around us the ability of man is glorified, and the
ideal of “self” is promoted. It is commonly reported that the remedy for
the problems we face in this world is “more”: more money, more time, more
gadgets, more might, more, more, more. However, trying to combat Satan
with the gospel of “more” is like handing a starving man kitchen supplies; all
around him is useful tools to fix his problem, but the essentials to combat
hunger remain absent. Jesus Christ, His power and His might are essential
to combating the devil and whatever else may come along. If we want to
live a life for God, we must live in Him. It is not “more”, but “less”:
less of ourselves, less of our will, less of our way…..in yielding to Him we
find strength in Him.
As we continually and constantly
yield our will to His, it only follows that we say and do exactly what he would
have us to. We become totally and completely dependent on His direction
and therefore solely supported by Him alone. We are “strong in the Lord
and in the power of His might.” When you are in this place there is
nothing Satan can do to confound you, because Jesus has “overcome the world”
and he has put the prince of this world (the devil) under his feet. We
are overcome by the “blood of the Lamb
and the word of his testimony.” Your life has a testimony of Christ
and Christ alone, so it stands to reason that you can only but overcome,
because he has overcame. He overcame it all for us so that we could
overcome; and he left for us truths in the scripture to follow after and made
them inescapable, for our benefit. These truths were not to be considered
optional or debatable; they had to be absolute because to not adhere to them is
to put your soul at risk. If we want to serve God and make it to a home
in heaven these inescapable truths must be applied to our lives. They are
made inescapable, not so that we may feel confined by them; in fact it is just
the opposite. They are made inescapable so that we may be free.
