“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12, NKJV
For a few days, I am with my family on the North Carolina shore. Peacefulness is all around me. The sun is now rising and the chilly ocean waves breaking on the shore invite the few walkers passing by to dip their toes into its gentle sea salt foam. My thoughts, however, are on another part of the world, where there is no peace.
My heart is so heavy from the images seen on the news of the last week that won’t leave my mind. In the seven decades I have lived, never have I felt the depth of human depravity as profoundly as I do in these early morning hours. “Wars and rumors of war” the pastor said, this is the way life will be in the “last days” before Jesus returns. With the help of technology, the sights and sounds of war are no longer restricted to a geographical region. True, watching is a choice but not watching is almost impossible.
Ephesians 6:11, instructs, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” As easy as it is to look at the current war in Europe, or any war and see human tyrants, the writer of Ephesians says it is not “flesh and blood” perpetrating war. Of course, humans are involved in the carnage, because they are willing pawns of the “principalities…powers…[and] rulers of the darkness of this age…[the] spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” But make no mistake; the deeds of war are courtesy of “the wiles of the devil.”
Friend, whether we are walking on a peaceful beach, or find ourselves on the front lines of war, we must remain alert with preparedness. God’s “armor” is the perfect fit for anyone, anywhere, who puts it on. I invite you to check out God’s armor in Ephesians 6:11-20 and put it on purposefully every day in the name of Jesus Christ.