Jesus has won the war, but the individual battles are still being fought.

It’s been a while since I’ve written, and God has me somewhere vastly difference than the last time I updated. I have recently decided to move to Dallas. It was a VERY hard decision for me, and God, in His grace, has been walking me through it each day. I’m not quite as anxious as I used to be, which is such a relief! However, as I’ve been going through this huge life transition, God has been teaching me a great deal about myself. I left Hampton/Newport News about 2 months ago, and I can honestly say it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Which is precisely why I think God had me do it. He made it abundantly clear that I was settling in Hampton merely because it was comfortable and I had friends there. But it was absolutely not where He wanted me. I didn’t want to be there forever, and He nudged me one day, “Well, what’s keeping you here?” I realized quickly after returning home that I had set up SO many idols in Hampton, and I was living in many ways for my own fame, not God’s glory. I was a whitewashed tomb, much like the Pharisees Jesus interacted with in the Gospels. I focused so much on my external actions, not the motive of my heart. Don’t get me wrong- I loved the Lord a great deal, but I forgot that I was in the midst of spiritual battle. Which leads me to this post: As I’ve been listening to sermons and studying the Word, the Lord has really brought my attention to the strong language that He uses when addressing the sin in our lives. He urges us to “take every thought captive,” “put sin to death,” even “if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.” Yet I didn’t view sin that way…I would even toy with it, now that I reflect back on my behavior. I wasn’t actively fighting to take every thought captive, I was only fighting to behave the way I was supposed to. But thoughts are essential to the Christian walk! Scripture tells us that sin is not a sudden event- it builds up over time. It starts with our thoughts/desires, which lead to sin, and the penalty and result of sin is death (“desire gives birth to sin, and sin to death”). I didn’t have a sober view of how dangerous sin is, and how mean our adversary is. Scripture tells us to “not give the devil a foothold,” or “give the devil no opportunity.” Why? Because he’ll use it! We know that Jesus has already defeated him, but we must still fight the battles. He has won the war, but the individual battles have yet to be decided. And so we must continue to fight, and fight hard. Daily. In every moment. Allow me to give you an example of how dangerous it can be to give the devil even the smallest opportunity. I’m going to use lust because I think it is a commonly misconceived struggle. First- it is NOT just a male issue. However, I do think it has a slightly different flavor for the ladies. While guys are typically very physical, girls tend to be more emotional. Therefore, it is only fitting that our enemy would tailor his attack to appeal to that, right? So lust would start as dwelling on a thought for too long. For guys, they may be tripped up by a particular outfit/exposed body part. For girls, it may be by a kind word/action...or a chick-flick (can I get an 'amen'?) There may not be anything wrong with what the girl has worn or what the guy has done, but if we dwell on those things, it can open the door for sin. Next thing you know, we aren’t just thankful that a boy told us we looked nice- we’re dressing up for him. We’re wearing outfits we may not normally wear because he may like them. We can’t just be thankful that a guy gave us a hug after we had a hard day- we’re imagining other situations where he could give us a hug, complaining loudly about our stress in hopes that he will give us another hug- or maybe more. This may not be for all girls, but I’ve had multiple conversations with girls who struggle with this,and seen even more girls act these out and struggle with it. Our lust is not so much physical as emotional. We want to depend on men. We want to be taken care of, provided for, nurtured and protected. And these desires are not inherently evil! Some of them are even God-given. Before the fall He declared that it was not good for man to be alone. We are built for fellowship and community. Which is why it is so important to guard your thoughts, and guard your heart. We can’t avoid all temptations. We have to learn to submit them to Christ and fight them with the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. But it all starts with a lingering thought. Our imagination. A sinful desire; or a Godly desire (like marriage) that has been contaminated somehow (marriage as an end goal, not as a means of glorifying God). We don’t just suddenly go off the deep end- it builds up over time. That is why Christ tells us repeatedly that we must fight sin with such ferocity. Our enemy is deceitful and a liar- he will deceive you in to thinking you are safe, then he will fight with his most destructive weapons. But take heart- even the strongest Christians struggle with sin, and even stumble! Yes, Christians STILL SIN!! Shocking, I know- we don't normally act like we do. We like to pretend we don't have any "serious sin issues." But we do. We still sin. And it isn’t always just thoughts- Christians can still mess up big. David was an adulterer and a murder, Peter denied Christ, Moses had a temper, Abraham and Sara didn’t trust God’s promises (Sara even laughed at them!), and Jonah straight up refused to follow God- and all of these people were believers when they did these things. Humbling, right? Even Paul said “I don’t do what I want to do, and I do what I do not want to do.” He still struggled with temptation and sin- and he wrote a significant portion of the New Testament! That is so encouraging to me. Christ died to all my sin. And it was all future sin when He died for them. But when I stumble and fall, He’s right there to pick me up, dust me off, and draw me near to Him. Regardless of if I am struggling with hurtful thoughts, gossip, not having a daily time with Him, or dealing with hard-core drugs, porn, lust, murder…it doesn’t matter. He is able to deliver me from ALL OF THOSE, and love me through it all. He forgives. He isn’t going to bring it up again later to use against me. He is going to help me learn from my struggles, then use those to glorify Him. Doesn’t that make you want to fall at His feet in worship?! We are so unworthy of that kind of affection, yet he lavishes it on us without end. Rest in that. No sin is too big for Him to forgive and redeem. To forget that, or to live in a way that ignores that, is to ignore the truth of the Gospel. To realize the truth of the Gospel is to live in freedom- freedom from sin, and freedom to worship God. And freedom to not give the devil a foothold. Continue to fight the good fight. Christ is there to pick you up when (not if- WHEN) you get wounded. But don’t worry- that’s just a lost battle. The war has been won. It’s only up to us to fight the individual battles. But the victory is not ours- it’s Christ’s.