If we want to live a victorious life, we must learn how to be strong in the Lord. What I am saying to you is no different from what Paul the apostle wrote to the church at Ephesus: “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10).
Notice the phrase, “in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” This is the key. In other words, we must learn how to live our life by the power that is of God and not by our own strength. The logical question is, how do we do that? We find a clue in the next verse of Paul’s letter: “Put on the whole armor of God” (verse 11a). It’s interesting that Paul uses the term armor. It denotes warfare. And friend, that is exactly what we are engaged in.
But we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, Paul explains. I know our struggles tend to manifest themselves through people, but the Bible says we need the whole armor of God “that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (verse 11b). This brings us to the reason for my very first statement of this post, which was, “If we want to live a victorious life, we must learn how to be strong in the Lord.”
The point is that human strength alone is no match for the battle at hand. For the Bible teaches that our real enemy is the devil. I submit to you that one of the things that makes life so challenging for all of us is the spiritual wickedness that’s prevalent in our world. Believe me, if we were dealing with only natural laws and human behavior, we would have most of our world’s problems figured out by now.
Remember, the Bible says that if we want to stand against the tricks and strategies of the enemy, we must put on the whole armor of God. It is beyond the scope of this post to go into detail, but let’s summarize what the Bible refers to as the whole armor of God: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and continual prayer (verses 14-18).
The bottom line is that the more we grow in our faith, and the more we grow in the knowledge and application of the Word of God, and the more we learn how to effectively pray, etc., the more victorious we will be in life. That's because these are components of our armor that come from God, and the Bible says we must put on the whole armor of God. This is how to be strong in the Lord, and this is the only way we can win against the real enemy, which is the devil.
Copyright ©2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.
Notice the phrase, “in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” This is the key. In other words, we must learn how to live our life by the power that is of God and not by our own strength. The logical question is, how do we do that? We find a clue in the next verse of Paul’s letter: “Put on the whole armor of God” (verse 11a). It’s interesting that Paul uses the term armor. It denotes warfare. And friend, that is exactly what we are engaged in.
But we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, Paul explains. I know our struggles tend to manifest themselves through people, but the Bible says we need the whole armor of God “that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (verse 11b). This brings us to the reason for my very first statement of this post, which was, “If we want to live a victorious life, we must learn how to be strong in the Lord.”
The point is that human strength alone is no match for the battle at hand. For the Bible teaches that our real enemy is the devil. I submit to you that one of the things that makes life so challenging for all of us is the spiritual wickedness that’s prevalent in our world. Believe me, if we were dealing with only natural laws and human behavior, we would have most of our world’s problems figured out by now.
Remember, the Bible says that if we want to stand against the tricks and strategies of the enemy, we must put on the whole armor of God. It is beyond the scope of this post to go into detail, but let’s summarize what the Bible refers to as the whole armor of God: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and continual prayer (verses 14-18).
The bottom line is that the more we grow in our faith, and the more we grow in the knowledge and application of the Word of God, and the more we learn how to effectively pray, etc., the more victorious we will be in life. That's because these are components of our armor that come from God, and the Bible says we must put on the whole armor of God. This is how to be strong in the Lord, and this is the only way we can win against the real enemy, which is the devil.
Copyright ©2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.
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