A Lifestyle Of Battle - The One Year Salt and Light Devotional

Matthew 16:13-19

Upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. (Matthew 16:18)

SIMON PETER ACKNOWLEDGED Jesus’ identity as Messiah, and in response Jesus said he would build his church on Peter, which means “the rock.” In fact, he endowed his followers with a surprising degree of authority in this world, assuring them that even the gates of hell—of evil, of the underworld of death and decay, of all that opposes God’s Kingdom—would not prevail against them. Since gates are meant for defense, we can assume that Jesus means for his people to be the offense. The city sieges of ancient warfare were intense—picture Homer’s portrayal of the battle of Troy, or the final battle in Tolkien’s The Return of the King—and sometimes they could last for months. But Jesus assures us that our efforts to break through gates of darkness will ultimately be successful. We are to set a siege against evil with the hope and promise that we will win.

Many believers don’t yet have that mind-set. Sometimes we just long for survival or for our immediate interests to work out. We want protection, provision, guidance, and everything else included in the shalom of God’s Kingdom. But to extend God’s peace into places where evil currently dominates? We rarely want to go there. It takes time and effort, as well as some kind of plan. It isn’t on most of our to-do lists.

But it’s on God’s to-do list for his people, and he gives us strategies for carrying it out. We are to undo the works of the enemy (Luke 10:19), which Jesus came to destroy (1 John 3:8). We go up against the kingdom of darkness because we can. And the most effective way we can do that begins on our knees. Our prayers are powerful weapons against the forces of evil in this world, even when we don’t understand how or why. As with a city siege, a moment of intercession isn’t enough, but a lifestyle of battle is. Make prayer part of your days as often as you can. Real life happens behind the scenes, where you have been given stunning authority. Use it often and well.

{Father, you oppose evil. I often turn my back to it. That needs to change. I don’t always know what to do, but I know how to pray. Fuel my intercession and use it to expand your Kingdom against all opposition. Amen.