You need both a good offense and defense to be successful. That is, we need to be careful, but we don’t have to be scared.Īs it is in sports, so it is in battle. I like to describe it as “confident vigilance”. We can’t lose sight of the fact that we’re in a battle, but, that there is every reason to hope. Storm suggests that we find the balanced understanding between 1 John 4:4 and 1 John 5:19 so as to prevent the extremes of “obsessive preoccupation (based on their focus on 1 John 5:19 to the neglect of 1 John 4:4), or complacent indifference (based on their focus on 1 John 4:4 to the neglect of 1 John 5:19).”Īvoid “complacent indifference” of: “ Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” – 1 John 4:4Īvoid “obsessive preoccupation” of: “ We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” – 1 John 5:19 Passivity in our consumption of the Bible, the distraction of our “western world-view”, pride, and “insulated life-styles” are just several of the issues. It is sobering, even embarrassing, to consider how easily we’ve been sidelined. Sam Storm provides what he believes are 12 reasons why “Christians are tragically ignorant of and dangerously ill-prepared for spiritual warfare” in his article on confronting spiritual warfare. The battle is real, the enemy is real, and our need to be freed from ignorance and complacency is real. When you consider that this battle for the mind involves a persistent enemy, and the fact that there will never be peace, you’d better have a plan in order to remain sensitive to the “troop movement and changing tactics” of the enemy. We face relentless attacks that require a mental rigor that successfully defends against enemies in the physical and spiritual realms.ĮXECUTE | The Battlefield of the Mind Demands a Battle Plan “ …one of the most important things we need to learn… is how to guard, strengthen, and renew our minds, because the battle… always starts in the mind.” – Rick Warren “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The source of what we need to defend against is not visible, which is why I think we’re so easily deceived, and why “out of sight, out of mind” can be so deadly. This fact is quite clear from verses like Ephesians 6:12. Not to go all ‘Matrix’ on you, but there are both “seen and unseen” forces on our lives. “ The fact is, the reason we have so many ineffective Christians today is that they do not know how to fight the battle of the mind.” – Rick Warren
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