This week we concluded our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting journey. This has been a time to establish God as the highest priority in our lives and to deepen our dependence on Him. Throughout this time, we’ve heard stories of refreshing, refocus, and a rekindled spiritual passion.
Question: How have you seen God move in your life over the past 21 days?
It’s important to recognize and celebrate the ways in which God has worked in our lives. It’s also important to consider how we will live on Day 22—and beyond. How can we guard the gains and preserve the progress we’ve seen in our lives as we come out of times of renewal in our walk with Christ?
This week we also wrap up our study of the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus taught to His disciples during His famous Sermon on the Mount. Jesus ends the prayer with a request that will help us maintain our spiritual momentum.
Read Matthew 6.9–13.
We’ve already seen that Jesus calls us to a prayer life that:
- Honors a loving Father who delights to answer our prayers according to His perfect wisdom;
- Results in restoration and healing as His kingdom comes to earth;
- Brings true satisfaction as we look to God for the fulfillment of our needs;
- And allows us to experience the freedom of receiving God’s forgiveness and forgiving others.
As we start to pray and live into these things, we’ll see some amazing transformations in our lives. But how do we maintain this type of faithful living of the life He has called us to? The final thing we need to regularly be praying toward is that as God leads us, we might not be overcome by temptation or by evil. Or as the Message paraphrase of the Bible puts this prayer request, “Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”
One threat to maintaining our walk with Christ is the Devil. While sometimes people scoff at the Devil—like he’s some kind of cartoon character that sits on our shoulder and whispers in our ear—Jesus affirms that the Devil is quite real and dangerous. We are told that he is our enemy, that he seeks to devour, steal, kill, and destroy (1 Peter 5.8, John 10.10). But protection from the enemy is only half the battle for maintaining our walk.
Read Romans 7.15–25.
The Apostle Paul recognized that his battle was with himself. He fought against his sinful nature: that part of him that Christ had yet to fully redeem. This part of him caused him to do things he didn’t want to do, and to not do the things he did want to. Each of us fights this same battle. How will we win the war with our enemy the Devil, and with the enemy of ourselves?
Scripture teaches us five ways that we can overcome these two enemies and maintain the progress we have seen in our lives over the past weeks.
1. Renew our minds with God’s truth.
Read 2 Corinthians 10.3–5.
It’s through knowledge of God’s truth that we can take captive every incorrect thought or attitude and make them obedient to Christ. We are told in 2 Corinthians 11.14 that our enemy the Devil masquerades as an angel of light. He will use half-truths and lies that seem like truth to lead us away from God’s direction for our lives. It’s only when we’re prepared with the truth of God’s word that we can discern these deceptions and continue in our right walk.
But we can’t wait until we’re in the middle of the battle to prepare. A runner doesn’t wait until he or she is at the starting line to begin training for a race. Neither should we think that we can wait until we’re tempted to go astray to seek out the truths of God’s instruction.
Question: What kind of lies and half-truths have you seen the Devil attempt to use in your life to lead you toward temptation?
2. Get real in biblical community.
Read James 5.16–20.
One of the most powerful tools we have for overcoming temptation is getting real in biblical community. This is especially true for those habitual sins that we constantly struggle to overcome. Sin thrives in secrecy, much like food rots in a dumpster. It isn’t easy to be authentic about our struggles. Most often they are the things we just want to hide from others—the things we’re ashamed of. We need a community of people that we trust and that care about us so that we can be real with the dark places of our lives. When we bring sin into the light, it will lose most of its power. We have a choice: face the challenge of authenticity or embrace the agony of spiritual defeat.
3. Give ourselves fully over to God.
Read Ephesians 4.25–32.
Too often we get fixated on the things we want to stop doing—the “thou shalt nots” of our lives. But in this passage we see the need to replace the don’t with the do. It doesn’t just say don’t steal, but gives an instruction to do something useful with our hands and to share with others. It also says to build others up as an alternative to unwholesome talk. When we fixate on the things we want to stop doing, we’re putting them in the center of our minds. Instead, God tells us to put Him and His ways at the center.
Question: When faced with a temptation that constantly trips you up, what is a contrasting thought or action that you could take that would bring you closer to God? When you’re tempted by that sin, take this new action or dwell on this thought instead.
4. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Read 2 Corinthians 3.16–18.
The primary driving force of sin is that it “feels good.” We can have all kinds of truth in our heads, but when we get tempted, it can be the desire to experience that temporary satisfaction that drives us to giving into it. The best way to combat experience is with experience. To avoid experiencing the trap of sin we need to experience the freedom of the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who helps us truly experience the joy and satisfaction of walking with Christ.
There are three primary ways to seek the Holy Spirit and make the joy of Christ real in our lives:
- Engage our hearts in worship.
- Spend time with God in prayer.
- Let God’s Word sink deep into our hearts through meditation.
5. Recognize that our victory has already been won.
As followers of Christ, the outcome of our battle is already determined. We are told that Jesus disarmed our enemies, triumphing on the cross (Colossians 2.15), and that we have overcome, because the One who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4.4). There is no reason for us to live our lives in defeat. Our mission is not to gain the victory, but to implement the victory that has already been won!
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