SWORD OF THE SPIRIT                                                                                               1242

“Assaulted”

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. – Psalm 119:9

Have you ever traveled to a foreign country for a season? Do you recall the comforting sensation of being home when you returned to your homeland?

Zoom out for a more macro perspective on ‘home’ and view our planet from space. God positioned Planet Earth perfectly in space to protect it and shield it. He equipped it with what it needed to renew itself and the chemicals and minerals to support human life which He created in His image. And here we are. If we do not like it here, there is no other ‘home’ to go to – or is there?

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. – Philippians 3:20

As Christians, saved by grace through Jesus and born again by the Holy Spirit, we are indeed strangers in a strange land – and it is getting stranger by the day.

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. – 2 Timothy 3:1-5

The world that we consider ‘home’ is becoming increasingly uncomfortable for Christians. We are repeatedly assaulted visually and verbally with the siren song of sin. Temptation attacks our flesh at its weakest and most vulnerable points as the world seeks to assimilate us into the cesspool that it has become.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. – James 1:14

We are visually assaulted everywhere by people dressed provocatively and immorally. From beer to burgers, advertisers promote the LGBTQ and woke agendas seeking to desensitize us, especially our youth, to what God calls immoral and an abomination to Him. There is no escaping the assault on our senses that violate Biblical Christian values.

So how are we to keep our way pure? How are we to walk in holiness? The Psalmist answers this in our reference Scripture: By guarding it according to your word. We need spiritual armor and weapons to defend against the daily assault we are faced with.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. … praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, – Ephesians 6:10-18

We cannot stop the world and get off as if it were a nightmarish amusement ride. We are here until the Lord calls us home and we are to be salt and light in this dark society we find ourselves in.

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one…. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. – John 17:11-15

Rest assured that the day will come when God says ‘Enough!’ That day will come when it is least expected. The world will not be ready. We need to be ready every moment of every day.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. … You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. – 2 Peter 3:10-18

May you live and move and have your being in this world as citizens of Heaven being empowered, equipped, and protected by the full armor of God. May you know His divine power, strengthening you to live a godly life in the midst of being assaulted by this ungodly world.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. – 2 Peter 1:3