And you think you can take me down?

So, I was thinking…what does it take for me to feel like my life is full today? What is my weapon against Satan’s assault of envy-laden thoughts? What do I do with them?

Do I think other thoughts, do I attempt to try to tear apart the ones I don’t want ruling my life? I’ve tried the latter many times and I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t work. When we face a temptation, if we want to win, we don’t try to take it down by merely telling ourselves the reasons why we don’t want it.

I don’t know about you, but the reason why I face temptation in that moment is because there is a part of me that does want it. A part that will not back down unless another part of me is made to rise above it.

But how is the God-revering part of you and I capable of rising up and performing a conquest in the face of temptation? It is not. Instead, with our spirits we wait upon the One who gives us life and hope. We count on His faithfulness because we know He has already made the conquest of Satan and our flesh. We have no need of achieving any new victories on our own. Instead, we recognize that His victory spans every fight we will ever face.

And, we use this knowledge as our confidence. It is the one weapon we raise. Yet, how do we raise it? First, we remind ourselves that God is in the temptation with us. So we turn our attention on Him. We do not look to ourselves, counting on our strength to carry us through. Neither do we become discouraged because we believe our weakness must assure us of a loss in this contest.

That is not the case for us who are in Christ. He is our victory. We is the One who makes our weakness a joy because, with a dependence on His strength, we can obtain a greater victory than we could have on our own.

In Him our stubborn sinful nature is put to death, while our frail God-fearing nature is made strong. Therefore, we have nothing to fear in the fight. We have only to position ourselves to receive from God the grace that will carry us through and establish us in His wisdom and power. In this way, God enables us to face temptations so that we will be made more like Himself in the tussle.