July 7, 2020

Are We Fighting the Right Enemy?

Our fight is with weapons unseen, Your enemies crash to their knees As we rise up in worship…
Victory is Yours by Bethel Worship

I was on a run a few weeks back when this song came on. And as it played, I felt my perspective shifting.

We are living in the midst of a pandemic. Division is happening everywhere. People all over are fighting against each other rather than standing together.

When the lyrics of that song came on, it felt as though blinders were pulled off of my spiritual eyes. While trying so hard to do the “right” things, it can be easy to find ourselves fighting against each other over differences in opinions. We end up treating each other like enemies as we feel threatened by different choices, because we feel as though they infringe on our safety and the safety of others.

It is heartbreaking to see people I love suffering as a result of all the division. And I wonder, how much more must it break the heart of our Father in Heaven to see His people turning against each other in these difficult times, rather than turning to Him, unified in heart and mind.

The victory is His. It always had been, and it always will be.

Yet how easily we forget.

We are all trying our best to navigate uncharted waters right now. And yet people are still shouting at each other over what course we should take. Nobody has all the answers. Our information is limited and flawed. But our faith, and our love, doesn’t have to be.

As I continued my run, and as I soaked in the beauty and truth in the lyrics of this song, I envisioned a battlefield. And the question came to my mind –

Who falls during a battle?

Warriors on either side of the battle line, that’s who. And everyone around them suffers as well.

When we fight against each other, we succeed in tearing each other down and pushing each other away. And in doing so, the enemy wins.

In Matthew 22: 37 – 40 Jesus tells us that the two greatest commandments are to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your sound and with all your mind,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” So why wouldn’t the enemy scheme to cause us to turn our backs on these commandments, if Jesus Himself said they were the greatest? The enemy wants to separate us from God and each other. He wants to destroy our relationships. We know that. Yet so often we blindly fall into his traps that cause us to turn away from God’s will and act unloving towards others.

“Our fight is with weapons unseen.”

It’s not fought with a face mask. Or a social media post. Or a vaccine. Or even civil rights.

Our true enemy is not a virus. Death is inevitable. The ultimate question we’re facing right now isn’t about how we fight, but rather how are we going to choose to live and love in a fallen world, in the face of crisis, and make sure we’re not fighting our friend because we’ve been deceived into mistaking them for our enemy?

Let’s not be blindsided by the enemy’s schemes. But rather let’s be on our guard with prayer and praise as our number one offense.

And let’s choose to stand with, and for, each other in love.