War
No man has passively become more spiritual. No one trips and falls into religion and holiness.
Trying to shift human behavior demands work, and the Bible teaches that it demands warfare of a spiritual nature.
We live in a Culture where people wallow in sin.
And the problem is that it doesn’t stop with the secular world. People even within religion, even within the church are not standing up against and fighting their own sins.
It’s as if no one wants to put up a fight anymore.
We just act how we want, sin at will, and hope the grace of God will cover us for what we are doing.
This is not how we are supposed to act. We are at total war. And it’s high time we started acting like it.
I. The Nature of the Battle
A. Understanding The Difficulty
People give in because sin is fun and easy.
Not all fun is sin but all sin is fun.
It doesn’t take any special effort to do what is wrong.
Sin has immediate rewards, pleasures, and enjoyment.
Just because it is easy to give in, does not mean it is impossible to resist.
Don’t mistake difficulty for weakness.
Often we have to strain against our very nature to the limits of our ability to overcome sin. This is not a weakness, it is simply the reality of being a human being.
B. The Struggle
When going to war against sin, there are inevitable tide shifts in the battle. One moment can seem like our victory is at hand and in the very next minute we fall on our faces.
The tables turn from moment to moment.
The war is a never-ending one. It begins the moment sin enters the mind of man at the age of accountability and it will continue on to the day of his death.
This is a frightening reality about our daily spiritual walk. There is no rest, no reprieve, no freedom from evil until that day when we finally leave this earth.
However the battle turns out, there is a chance to improve ourselves and get better. In every defeat there is a chance to learn what we need to be doing. we can strategize better and improve ourselves.
From the knowledge we gain from our daily battles, we should be making spiritual progress. Many of us don’t do this because it is difficult and requires the work of reflection. But that reflection and studying of our failures should be a regular part of our lives.
II. Progression Over Perfection
A. Incremental Victories
Don’t focus on winning the war all at once. You will get discouraged.
Instead, focus on incremental victories and progress.
Study and plan how you can make changes in your life even on the smallest level. Don’t just stay where you are, improve who and what you are. But be willing and humble enough to accept small results for a while.
Real progress is made by continuing to course correct despite setbacks and failures.
Do not let the failure bring you to the point of quitting. That is what the enemy wants you to do, but you have to resist.
You have to continue to push despite wanting to quit.
People believe that religious individuals are full of blind, unwavering faith. But the reality is that religious people struggle with their faith very often.
The walk of faith looks like smooth sailing from the outside, but on the inside it is a raging storm of spiritual warfare.
But the good thing about spiritual warfare is that if you fight and win enough battles, you can create greater peace in your life.
While we’ll never be completely free from spiritual war, we can make our situation better while we are here.
B. Perseverance
There is more to the Biblical narrative than massive overarching victories. One of the key Proverbs teaches us that righteousness is found in continuing to try to overcome our imperfections.
“The Righteous man falls seven times yet rises again” ~
Proverbs 24:16
In fighting sin, there will be just as many defeats as there will be victories. In fact, there may be more defeats for a long time until we begin to shift the tide. Do not worry about how long it takes to win the war. Focus on fighting and rising again when you fall.
III. Strategic Warfare Against Sin
A. Identify Weaknesses
You have to know yourself if you are going to overcome weaknesses. Introspect and study your character flaws.
What causes you to fail?
What are the things that lead up to failure?
What types of environments trigger failure?
Answering these questions start to let you understand the state of your own weakness.
Not everyone is tempted in the same way.
Not everyone struggles with the same sin.
Learn your specific weak points and mitigate them.
B. Warfighting
Once your weaknesses are identified, you now have to strategically plan how you are going to go to war. Plan what environments you are going to war against. What are you going to cut out of your life?
If you know a certain set of behaviors, triggers or beliefs leads you straight to failure, plan what you are going to do instead.
Sometimes a change in the behavior or self actions if all you need to short-circuit the sin.
The goals have to be actionable and practical. No vagaries.
C. Warlike Intensity
Take on an aggressive mindset against your sin. So many religious people today wallow in brokenness and soft emotions. Reject the soft emotions and take on hard emotions.
You were given the emotions of anger and hatred for a reason. Concentrate those emotions on the battle when it matters. Learn to hate your sin.
When you encounter failure, use that positive aggression and anger to propel yourself back forward into fight.
Don’t give yourself time to become sad or depressed between failures. The moment you fail, repent and get back on the horse.
Don’t lose that war-momentum.
IV. Execution and Persistence
A. Resisting the Temptation to Give Up
The biggest mistake people make when fighting sin is giving up too quickly. You didn’t fall headlong into sin in one day. It took time for it to fully root in your character and behavior. It is going to take a long time to undo those tendencies as well.
Therefore, you have to build momentum and plant into your mind that you won’t quit despite many many failures.
V. Finding Strength
A. Seek the Divine
Don’t go to war alone. Ask for God’s help when waging war against your person sin.
But do not fall into the trap of believing that just because you prayed that God will do all the heavy lifting .
He has never operated that way, and He is not starting now. You still have to draw your sword and fight.
VI. Victory
Actively fight sin, don’t give into it. Stay committed to the war despite repeated failures.
If you encounter difficulty, know you are on the right path.
With strategic planning, persistence, and faith, victory over sin is possible. You can win. But continue to struggle until the day you die.
Conduct yourselves like men.
