TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that
can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming
of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this
you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love
Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
—1 Peter 1:3-9 (NIV)
Additional Scripture
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.”
—Revelation 12:10-12 (NIV)
Reflect on the Word
Living as if we don’t have a spiritual enemy is a common—but serious—mistake for believers. We buy into an under-spiritualized view of the world that robs us from a true understanding of the freedom God has promised.
When we don’t know who our enemy is, we make enemies of the wrong things. Core to the gospel is an understanding that there is one who seeks to steal, kill and destroy. We need not fear the enemy—Jesus has full authority over him—but we must not live without contending against his schemes to destroy us.
We must also guard against the opposite mistake—giving the enemy more power than he has. As real as he is, his only power is deception. As we rightly anchor ourselves to Jesus, we find our true source of power and victory because the enemy has already been defeated.
Jesus commissioned His church with the promise that the gates of hell would not overcome it. How easy it is for our hearts to be drawn to the things of the world and the heaviness of darkness. But we are people of faith.
Even when the darkness seems all-consuming, may we be people who set our eyes on Jesus, the One who has conquered sin and death. This is a victorious faith that the enemy cannot stand against.
Prayer + Contemplation
- Reflect on your own understanding of spiritual warfare. Have you overestimated, or underestimated, the influence of the enemy? Have you overestimated, or underestimated, the power of Jesus? Pray that God would give you a right understanding of the spiritual realm.
- Pray that God would use you as a spiritual force for good in your family, work, church and world.
- Pray for strength, courage and wisdom as you engage with the enemy. Intercede for those all over the world who need freedom and breakthrough, and who need the power that only Jesus can provide. If there are specific people, countries or people groups that come to mind, pray that God would deliver them from the lies of the enemy.
Prayer is for the whole family
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