Wrestling the Devil

Read: Ephesians 6:10-20


     For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.                                                Ephesians 6:12


    Growing up, one of the sports I really enjoyed was wrestling. I’m not talking about the fake stuff where they beat each other over the head with chairs and throw punches a foot from their opponent’s face to knock him off his feet. I’m talking about the real physical contact, take-down, battle-it-out wrestling that requires a lot of real strength and endurance, not just a show of those things. If you have never wrestled then it may be hard for you to understand the amount of energy and stamina it takes just to go to the end of a six-minute match. By the time the last horn goes off, many wrestlers are completely exhausted.
     Actually making it to the mat for the wrestling match is often the culmination of a lot of hard work that happened well before the wrestler stepped out there. To be a good wrestler, a guy has to spend hours each week in the weight room to strengthen his muscles, hours a week running to stay in shape, more hours a week practicing wrestling moves, all while on a diet to maintain weight for his weight class. In other words, wrestling is not for wimps.
     As tough as it may be to wrestle in a physical wrestling match, we are all in a wrestling match every day where the stakes are much higher. We are in a struggle for our spiritual life or death. The devil would like nothing better than to completely destroy us. Ultimately, we are fighting forces that are, by their very nature, extremely evil and harmful.
     Could you imagine a guy that had never trained, never lifted weights, or never wrestled a day in his life getting into a wrestling match with a well-trained, physically well-sculpted wrestler? It would be a suicide mission. It would be like walking out onto the mat and saying, “Please tear me in half.” No one in his right mind would get out there to face an opponent unless he had prepared himself.
     In much the same way, many Christians go into their day ready to fight Satan without ever having cracked open their Bible, without ever having breathed a word in prayer, and without ever having prepared themselves spiritually to face the evils the devil will throw at them. It is like saying, “Please destroy my spiritual life so I will never be useful for God.” This passage reminds us to put on the armor of God so we will be prepared to face Satan’s attacks.


Quote of the day: “Satan’s ploys are no match for the Saviour’s power.”