Where's the Battle ? Psalm 21 Eph 6:12

My normal habit would be to post what I had written in my off line journal. But it is so long, that I've opted not to do that. Besides, any one that knows me, knows that often my thoughts are far afield and unless you can jump in my mind it's hard to know what the heck brought all that on?!

I suppose I could summarize it by what Tozer says in his book The Pursuit of God:

Where faith is defective, the results will be inward insensibility

and numbness toward spiritual things. (p. 53)

Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Ephesians:

For our struggle is not against enemies of flesh and blood,

but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the cosmic powers of this present darkness,

against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (6:12)

Every day I am being challenged. Sometimes more by my own inner man than by anything else. But very often by the enemy who - in reality - is better served if I remain docile and depressed; handicapped and on the sidelines. That is not to say that I am some spectacular force of righteousness, it is just to say that I am another soldier of the Cross, like you are, and if he can keep me down, that's one less soldier on the battlefield.

One of Satan's most effective tools is, as Tozer puts it "inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual things". In other words, thinking my only battle is within and not without. That the struggle only pertains to my individual faith and not that of the community; that my temptations are only a sign of weakness not an attack from the enemy.

Zig Ziglar use to tell the story about the bullfrog in the pan of water. You could put a bullfrog in a pan of water on a stove and slowly, incrementally, turn the burner up and the frog would not jump out - he would stay in the water until he boiled to death. Why? Because its body would slowly acclimate to the temperature of the water around it and it would sense that nothing is wrong. Until it was too late.

I must be ever vigilant. Always on my guard. I know how demoralizing the enemy can be. I he can take the slightest weakness and compound it into a paralyzing handicap. How he can take what seems to be the simplest word and use to to turn the truth into a "lie". How he can lull me into thinking it's okay when all the while the water is boiling around me and I am slowing dying.

Father Spirit...I know who wins the war, so during the battles in this life, let me keep my eyes upon Jesus - my heart hopelessly devoted to You - my mind focused on your WORD - and my feet set straight on your path. May it be.