Rise Up (Part 3)

And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits high; and in the Egyptian’s hand was a spear like a weaver’s beam; and he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and slew him with his own spear. — 1 Chronicles 11:23

Benaiah killed a huge Egyptian.  This is listed as his last great exploit for which he had become famous.  It also gives us some insight as to how he did it.  Benaiah purposefully went out to fight him with an inferior weapon, a staff.  NIV says “a club.”  The Egyptian had a mighty spear.  Anybody watching would have realized that Benaiah was smaller and fighting with an inferior weapon.  I could go into why Benaiah did this, but by now you’ve probably figured it out.  Benaiah  was simply continuing to pattern his life after David.  He remembered that David fought Goliath with a sling and a stone…a much inferior weapon (or so everyone thought) to Goliath’s sword, which was probably as big as David.  Anyone betting on the fight would have put their money on Goliath.

Today, the world would look at me and laugh…in fact, I have a few that do.  I have learned in 21 years as a Christian to fight with the Word of God.  Incidentally, the Bible calls the Word of God the “Sword of the Spirit.”  (Ephesians 6:17)  This is my weapon of choice.  The Devil is much bigger than me.  He is more powerful than me.  Before I picked my Sword up, he brutalized me.  He constantly brought up my past.  He used hatred, alcohol, pre-marital sex, pornography, discontent and greed to constantly beat me down.  Anybody watching the fight would have put their money on the devil.

Then, one day, I don’t really when it was, I picked up my Sword with the intent of actually using it.  I think I heard the Devil laugh at me in pretty much the same way that Goliath laughed at David.  I read that “He who is in me is greater than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)  It told me that I was God’s child and I could be one who overcomes this world.    Evil, along with the worldly ways that told me I had to have the best of everything and have it right now slowly but surely began to lose out to God’s word.  I began to follow Jesus.  I began to actually do what the Bible teaches.  The more I read, the more I loved Him.  The more I loved Him, the more I wanted to do what was right.  The more I did what was right, the more the devil ran out of fuel to tell me how much I had failed God and let me know how angry God was at me.

I think that was the best part.  I no longer had to do what was right to keep a judgmental, angry God from being mad at me.  I began to want to serve a God who was quick to show mercy to us extremely vulnerable and frail human beings.  I wanted to serve Him.  I saw Jesus as He really was, not filtered through the words of Satan.

So what does all this mean for me and you today?  It means there are battles to be fought.  It means that there is sin to overcome.  It means there are demonic powers that would love to make us a casualty of war.  Sounds kind of scary doesn’t it?  Fortunately, I still have my weapon of choice.  People may call me “simple minded” and say that I‘m “unable to think for myself,” but so far, the Word of God has stood the test of time.  There is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing that I have applied to my life that I got from reading the Bible that has not worked!  I see no reason to think it is going to stop working any time soon.

Pick up your sword…read it…live it!

Rise up ye mighty men and women of God!

Later

Adam