The Necessity of Zero Tolerance

Neither give place to the devil. Ephesians 4:27 KJV

The tears are flowing as I write this devotional this morning. I am so moved by God’s desire and ability to get us to understand truth. His truth. How tainted our life becomes when we allow the enemy of our soul to distort, malign, misinterpret, and sabotage any of God’s truth. Truth about Himself, about us, and about others. Everything that comes into our life is fair game for his spin as far as he is concerned. He will stop at nothing to get us to see life through his grid of lies rather than God’s grid of truth. He will use things from our past (be it wounds, hurts, losses, disappointments), things from our present, and even imagined things from our future. His intent is to destroy us and God’s work through us.

I called a friend last night and we talked about how easily and persistently the enemy can get to us through negative thinking. I shared with her how the entire day had been spent fighting off the messages that just kept coming. As long as I came against the thoughts with Scripture and prayer I was okay. But by mid afternoon I gave place to him. One unguarded thought and the whirlwind hit! Everything I thought I had so effectively fought off came back with a vengeance. For I had simply been holding it at bay instead of enacting spiritual warfare. There is such a difference between those two things. The phone conversation helped me to see that.

When I do not take authority over the enemy and thoroughly demolish the strongholds and attacks, his fingerprints are all over the place. My life becomes chaotic with confusion, discouragement, hopelessness, and darkness. I become uncertain about God’s direction in my life and my devotion to Him. I question the authenticity of my journey. This thinking sets me up for the enemy’s well thought out plan. He begins to introduce me to options I can take. How dangerous it would be to take them.

I say all of this to remind myself and others of the necessity to be on guard. We cannot afford to give him the tiniest spot of opportunity to move in and set up residence in our thoughts, actions, words, or relationships. And if we have already given him that “place” we must take the steps to remove him. I experienced his glee of “victory” over me yesterday but today I “stand strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10).

Father, I bear some bruises from the enemy and am in need of Your balm of healing! Continue teaching me how to fight the good fight! Amen.