Sunday, April 08, 2007

A Power Struggle









Have you ever felt like you are fighting a battle that is difficult to win? Have you ever wondered how there might be a power at odds with you?

What does every good story have? It has a villain. It is hard to think of a tale that doesn’t have a villain. The Big Bad Wolf, the Troll under the bridge, Darth Vadar in Star Wars, the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz. And in the great story of J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, we come to dread the Dark Lord Sauron.

And just as every story has a villain, so does your story and my story. Though we don’t want to admit it, we don’t like it, it is a reality. There is evil cast around us. With war, famine, betrayal, and murder all around us, we surely know there is an evil force. Where did it come from? What is its motive? How are we to find refuge from it? We ask these questions.

The good news is that we are not alone in this battle. The battle is being fought for us in another realm. As the apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” God has created angels. Angels are powerful. That is why every time an angel shows up in the Bible, they have to say “Fear not…” They strike fear into humans by their presence.

It is interesting to see how naïve so many people are about evil. Most people don’t take it seriously. They don’t live as if there is a villain in their story. They don’t believe that Satan is real. The truth is, life is very confusing if you don’t take into account that there is a villain. As C. S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity,

“One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament

seriousl,y was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe—a

mighty, evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death, disease, and

sin…Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was

good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees…this is

a universe at war.”
Today is Easter Sunday. Easter reminds us that we will see Christ again in heaven. Easter is about Jesus making all things new. No longer is Satan in charge. No longer does sin and death reign over us. Because Christ has died and been risen from the dead, the Evil One is cast down. I lift this blog up to you today to give your life over to the risen Christ, and receive the power and victory that Christ has for you. God bless. Tell me what you think by clicking on the button below and sharing your thoughts.