Our Battle

For your battle is not against flesh and blood...

Why did Mark Cuban tell Kenyon Martin's mom that Kenyon is a thug? What would cause someone to do that? Can we say it's the heat of the battle? Emotions? Pain?

For years, I have responded to people by the way they made me feel. If they caused me to feel good, I was nice to them. If they caused me to feel bad, I didn't treat them so well. I thought the problem was what they were doing. I don't think that way anymore.

Satan wants us stirred up. He wants the heat of the battle, emotions and pain to guide us. All of those situations are about us and satan wants our lives to be about us. Did satan make Mark Cuban say those things? No, but I do believe satan has influence on Cuban (and everyone else) to cause Cuban to make his response from his feelings. Do you think Cuban really things Martin is a thug because he plays a game physically? Do you think Cuban really wanted to tell Martin's mom her son was a thug? In fact, he has written an apology and I think Cuban is sorry for doing that but may not understand what really caused him to spout off like that.

I'm using an extreme example of how satan works because I truly believe satan is not given enough credence for his role in our lives. Satan wants us to think the battle is against the person who is aggravating us or hurting us and that is a lie. The battle is against satan and his forces of evil. Our battle is against forces we cannot see (and for most of my life, forces I didn't even fathom, didn't understand and didn't care to understand) and that is they way satan wants it. He wants us to battle what we can see and we fall for it because it is easy.

I don't know how many times I have read Romans 6 and gone right through it without listening and heeding to what is said. Because I can't see the rulers and authorities of the dark world, I didn't pay much attention but continued to focus on flesh and blood. When I read Romans 6 today, I shiver because I now know those forces are fighting for my thoughts and actions every day but I also know I have been completely equipped by God to hold them off. God has given me all I need if I just reach for the tools, the weapons he has made for me.

The battle is not against flesh and blood and cannot be fought by flesh and blood alone. I thank God for his preparation for me and for his Spirit that will fight for me and with me to fend off the true battle.