I think all Christians start their spiritual warfare with their behavior (deed), since it it the easiest to see and recognize. We see ourselves engaging in external and obvious sins which makes it easier to identify and combat. Giving the finger to someone who cuts you off in traffic becomes not only easy for us to see as sinful, but also others as well. It becomes the most external and visible of a person's battle with sin and probably the easiest to win.
The second layer, becomes our talk (word). There are dozens of verses in the Bible that make reference to the tongue as a source of death, venom, poison as well as other weapons...and with good reasons, words HURT. I was talking to this with my students during class the past week about the effects of bullying and how I can still, FIFTEEN YEARS LATER, remember, in detail, how I was bullied, what was said, where I was, even the tone of voice of the offender. These things stick with us and the tongue is truly worthy of the negative aspects ascribe to it all throughout scripture. On the flip-side, I also remember when my tongue inflicted horrendous damage and pain.
However, at the deepest and darkest of our humanity lie our thoughts, our hearts: where the darkest and most evil selves reside. My heart is no different. I find that all of my sinful desires lie, at their core, with pride. Unthankfulness, impatience, lust, greed, even boredom all derive from my pride telling me that I "deserve" things. Oh I deserve something all right: death and condemnation. My sin, even at the level of thought, has so offended the Lord that all I deserve is condemnation.
Our hearts are wicked and desperately evil (Jeremiah 17:9) and I am no different. We all have thoughts that go through our mind that shock us, and I think at times will even make unbelievers ashamed of their own thoughts. This is the hardest and most persistent battleground with sin. THIS is where spiritual warfare is at it most brutal and most crushing. THIS is the front-line. THIS is Gettysberg. We fight against ourselves our sinful self constantly battling with our new self, found in Christ. And make no mistake about it, it is ALL OUT WAR. There IS heartbreak. There ARE casualties.
But, there IS hope.
Christ is with us throughout the war, reassuring us that we will be victorious, not because of anything we do, but because our Lord has the other guy's number. It isn't a matter of "if". It's a done deal. No matter how much we fail or how much we succeed in this war, though Christ, we will achieve victory and ONLY because of Him.
Let us continue to battle to Glorify God.
Kneel
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