I turn 66 today and today’s topic was very appropriate. Spiritual warfare. What’s it all about? Tripp alluded to the common misconception: demons dancing on the table. Add to that other misconceptions: demons peeking around the corner. Demons on our shoulders. Demons whispering in our ears. A demon of lust, or discouragement, or jealousy, or depression, or hatred, or (you fill in the blank). Fanciful storybook ideas. (I liked Perreti’s two books).  But not reality.

The reality is sin is a constant battle with an unseen foe. To put it the way Tripp put it elsewhere:

We have shrunk life down to the size of our glory. maybe it really is true that somehow, someway, sin makes us all glory thieves. We steal for ourselves what belongs to God. We put ourselves in God’s place. Perhaps life really is one big unending glory battle. It’s because we would never, ever win this battle on our own that Jesus came.  (O Come Let Us Adore Him- December 9 devotion)

Life is war. It is a war against the sin within me. It is a battle I cannot win on my own. It takes a surrender of my heart, my will, my mind, my kingdom, myself to the One who truly should be the ruler of my heart. I must choose whom I want to rule: the petty, would-be anarchist or the true, rightful and worthy ruler who made me, sustains me, and wants to rule within me.

“Father, I know life is a battle. Even as I get older it doesn’t get any easier. It is a war. I also know the One who should be the ruler of my kingdom. Not the pretender. Not the one who rebelled and still rebels and who wants to be a petty dictator. Help me to give Jesus His rightful throne. Control me; consume me; rule over me, until that day when all is under your feet. Including my enemy!”