I’m expanding last week’s post, “Joy in Spiritual Battle.” Remaining constantly alert to Satan’s attacks could become exhausting, especially if we face frequent attacks. Life is not easy, and we must willingly fight the devil. Yet we may become overwhelmed, unless we must recognize our God-given right and need to rest. But how do we acknowledge the perpetual need to be alert and fighting Satan’s attacks with the need to rest? Please join me as I explore this paradox.
God gives us the answer to this paradox. Unlike an earthly battle where even high ranking generals do not know every time the enemy will attack them, the God of Heaven’s Armies does. So unlike a human soldier who can never fully rest, we can. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God can alert us to times of attack and times when we must rest. Perhaps the prophet Elisha best exemplifies this, as the assistant (and eventually replacement) of godly Elijah. In the book of 2 Kings, chapter 6, Elisha showed uncanny awareness of Satan’s ploys. From finding a missing axe head (vs. 5-7) to knowing every place and time the enemy King of Aram planned to ambush the Israelite King (vs. 8-12) to seeing protective angel warriors in fiery chariots (vs. 15-17), Elisha heard from the Holy Spirit about the times of the enemy’s intended attacks. As a result, Elisha remained calm and confident, even when the Holy Spirit told Elisha (ahead of time) that the King of Israel decided to send soldiers to kill him (6:31-33.) Elisha never stressed out over any of these events.
Elijah, who mentored and taught Elisha, also had powerful faith and stood up to violent servants of the demon Baal. This man was also a warrior, yet he was not a superman. The Apostle James wrote about the humanity of Elijah in James 5:17, “Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.” God did not hear and respond to Elijah’s prayers because he was powerful, but because God is powerful and faithful. And we do not fight because we are strong, but because God is.
Yet this also means we can rest whenever we are exhausted. In Psalm 121:4 God has promised “Behold the protector of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” Let’s look at this verse and the related ones from the Message translation (Psalm 121: 3-8): “He won’t let you stumble, your Guardian God won’t fall asleep. Not on your life! Israel’s Guardian will never doze or sleep. God’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you—shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you from moon-stroke. God guards you from every evil; he guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now; he guards you always.”
We are foolish if we let our guard down and then when something bad happens, we respond in our flesh with anger or self-pity saying, “Why did this happen to me?” Satan wanted bad things to happen to you. This sin-filled world hurls trouble at you. We need to EXPECT trouble, not be surprised when trouble happens. Letting our guard down so we can indulge our flesh is not rest, but some people mistake it for that. We rest by trusting God to care for us, and when something bad happens, we let God know we do not like it but not in grumbling. Instead we let him know it hurts. We cry out to him, but we can also (eventually) thank him for giving us the honor of suffering for him. At first we may need to grieve or even admit we are angry. God can handle our strong, negative emotions. Pretending we are not sad or angry will not change our heart. But bringing out those feelings to God when we are attacked, is part of our fight. SURPRISE! Being vulnerable and honest is part of our spiritual battle against Satan, as well as part of our rest.
We find rest by being our true selves in Christ: frail humans with pain and a lack of full knowledge. Bad things will still surprise us, even though we know this is a sin filled world. Being surprised or sad or even angry does not mean we are foolish or full of our flesh. It simply means we are human, just Elijah was. He even got depressed, but God re-commissioned him. Jeremiah also got depressed and even accused God of doing wrong. But God did not reject Jeremiah for what was a sin (falsely accusing God), but in Jeremiah 15:19b-20 God told him, “If you return to me I will restore you so you can continue to serve me. If you speak good words rather than worthless ones you will be my spokesman. You must influence them; don’t let them influence you! They will fight against you like an attacking army, but I will make you as secure as a fortified wall of bronze. They will not conquer you, for I am with you to protect you and rescue you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
Part of our rest is our honesty, vulnerability and willingness to change course when something we are doing is not working. Sometimes God gives us intense energy, and we can do our chores and jobs plus pray fervently, serve others and really battle Satan with a godly life. But at other times, God purposely gives us times of fatigue, even sickness, injuries, and extra stresses like family members’ intense needs (their sickness, their overly burdened work or school schedule where they need our help.) Sometimes God gives us so much to do, that we really cannot add more to our life. Our quiet times may be less joy filled and more filled with sorrow and concerns. We may have times when we do not sing joyfully with praise songs. God knows and honors the ebb and flow of our lives.
God honors our frail humanity, and he welcomes our need for rest. At times he expects us to rest, and if we keep refusing, we can get very sick or very injured until we absolutely have to slow down. We imagine this is very bad, but look at what happened to the Apostle Paul when he was forced to stop traveling as a church-building pastor. Paul wrote four essential books of the Bible, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. And when Paul was imprisoned for two years by Herod’s guards, some of them came to the Christian faith and then helped to sponsor Christian pastors in the area. So much good came out of Paul’s forced time of rest.
We may feel unproductive when we rest, but God can use our time of rest very productively, either in ways we do not expect, as God did with the Apostle Paul, or by tempering us and humbling us to rely on God more readily. Either way, God wants us to experience rest, even while we fight spiritual battles, and he is delighted when we do rest.
I pray we have blessed you with this week’s post. Please share with me any ways God has given you rest, even while you fight the Spiritual battles. May the Lord bless you this week!