The Best Thing

During the daytime, my retired husband often has the living room television turned to a financial news station. As I was doing something in the kitchen, I heard the announcer say to stay tuned, he would give the best thing America could do to fight _____ [a nation currently doing something most disapprove of]. My immediate thought was the best thing is prayer! But, naturally, that wasn't the solution the announcer had to give.

 

Paul in Ephesians 6 reminds us who our real enemies are. So then, if we are not fighting "against any physical enemy … [but] against organizations and powers that are spiritual … against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil"—then the best thing for us to do in our struggle against any enemy is always going to be prayer. (Ephesians 6:12 Phillips)

 

Tony Evans agrees. He wrote, "Doing battle with Satan requires more than a dose of will power. All warfare requires weaponry. Spiritual warfare requires spiritual weaponry."

 

In essence, then, if we are not using the spiritual weaponry given to us but are trying to use our flesh to battle against spiritual enemies, we might as well just throw in the towel now and lay down in defeat. When we use the flesh to battle a spiritual war, we can't win!

 

We need to always keep in mind that our real battle is—as my Thomas Nelson Study Bible commentator bluntly states—"with the demonic beings working through" the flesh and blood opponents we face and that those human beings often are very unaware they are being used. In fact, Jesus told us that there'd even be people who think they are serving God by persecuting His followers (John 16:1-4). Didn't Saul/Paul think that?

 

So, what is comes down to, then, is any battle we or our children face needs to be first of all addressed with prayer

 

That is the best thing.