I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. — Galileo
Living out who we are in Christ, and experiencing who Christ is in us, is a challenge. There are reasons this does not come easily! Every step requires faith, and that faith has some powerful enemies. We battle three things that keep us from trusting God:
- Christian philosophy
- Paralyzing fear
- Personal flesh
Behind each of these “foes of faith” are thoughts and ideas that war with our minds.
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
If your desire is to please God, the way you accomplish that is by trusting Him. It is through faith that we bring pleasure to Him. If we wake up today and say, “I’m going to trust Him today, I’m going to trust Him moment by moment,” we can end up in quite a fight! But thank God that we do not fight this battle for the mind alone. Just as He was with the Israelites, He is in you:
The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you, in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)
Mighty Warrior, I praise You for Your presence in me and around me. I proclaim Your victory. In the days ahead, reveal the philosophical, fearful, fleshly enemies that attack my faith, and quiet my heart in Your love. I trust in You to fight this battle. Amen.