Strength

I know it’s easy to say—Do not be anxious about anything…. You know the verse well. Some of you memorized it as a child. You know the verse is true. You have experienced God’s peace. But today is different.

Job survived. He endured heartache, heartbreak, physical pain, and mostly bad counsel from his so-called friends. In today’s passage, Job even prays for them! And God blessed Job by giving him twice as much as he had before. God blessed the latter part of his life more than the first.

The other night, I went through the house and turned on every light. Then I built big black boxes and put one over each light to stymie the glow. My work was done. I had turned the lights on and then covered them over so their glow could not be seen. You say, “Ridiculous!” That’s exactly what Jesus said.

There is a great story involving Jesus and his disciples that reminds us that even great men and women of God have times of doubt, especially when the storms kick up. Here’s the story from Matthew’s account of Jesus walking on the water and Peter giving it a try.

The greatest weapon in the spiritual battle is prayer—talking with God. We can only be strong in the strength of his might. And that strength comes when we are in conversation with the One in charge of the battle. Even when we are all buckled up in our battle gear, we must hear the voice of the Sovereign Commander. He is the only One who brings the victory.

In the past few weeks, the world has been engulfed in a crisis that started with a terrorist attack on Israel and its response. We have seen Israel’s “Iron Dome” fend off a barrage of rockets from Hamas and Hezbollah militants. We have watched Israel striking back at the terrorists’ stronghold in the Gaza Strip. More recently, Israel has sent in ground troops maneuvering through underground tunnels determined to find the enemy and in hopes of rescuing innocent hostages. This war is being fought in the air and on the ground. Our greatest enemy, the devil, fights against us on the same two fronts.

The spiritual battle never ends. Satan doesn’t leave the office and head home. He works day and night, weekends and holidays. He is looking to trip us up whether we are surrounded by people or all alone. As we have seen in the garden and desert temptation encounters, he goes after us in times of strength and weakness.

Satan attacks us at our weakest moments. He finds us when we are drained, exhausted, and alone. His temptations often come in the form of a remedy to satisfy our immediate needs. That’s where Satan began his temptations with Jesus in the desert.

Satan attacks us in our times of strength and in our times of weakness. He came aggressively after Adam and Eve in the garden during a period of perfect communion with God. He did the same with Jesus in the desert when he was physically vulnerable. Today, let’s compare the garden and desert temptations. I will borrow from the excellent work of William Cook and Chuck Lawless to make these comparisons.