This Battle Must Be Fought On Your Knees
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
(2 Timothy 1:7)
Fear and anxiety go hand in hand, like brothers. Where there is one, many times there is the other. There are other members to this family like anger, control issues, perfectionism, rejection, etc that can bring on anxiety or, in some cases, be a form of anxiety. But none are as close as fear and anxiety. If you can be caused to fear, rest assured anxiety will follow if given enough time. In war, fear is a powerful weapon used to cause another nation to go into bondage and be taken over. Causing fear means there is no chance that nation will fight back. Soon, anxiety comes when the people worry about what will happen from one day to the next or what will happen if they even try to fight back. The result? A nation that is afraid to move.
In the spiritual, there is no difference. If the enemy (or a person) can rule your emotions, they can rule you. If the enemy can cause you enough fear through your circumstances, in time you will become fearful enough that you will not want to move forward. This is called bondage.
I have fought this battle a few times in my life. The last time was over 10 years ago. And then, recently, I found myself facing it once again. My thought process was “Lord, I fought that battle with you and won years ago. Why am I going through it again?” There could be several reasons. Maybe to cut its ugly head off for good. Or to take me back into bondage. Or maybe because I have failed to battle my circumstance on my knees in prayer. I believe it’s all three. Although God helped me through it the first time in the 90’s, then God and medicine (for a short time) helped me through it the second time, I now have a more familiar weapon to battle with that I wasn’t as familiar with the other two times…the Sword of the Spirit…the Word of God…the Bible.
As I was fishing through the stations on my little transistor radio today, I stopped on the station playing “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips. I heard the following lyrics immediately:
“I know that there is pain, but you hold on for one more day and break free from the chains; Yeah I know that there is pain, but you hold on for one more day and you break, break from the chains…“
Sometimes it feels like we can’t hold on any longer, but God wants us to hold on. If we hold on even just one more day, by the next day things will seem a better. We will have gathered more strength and we will have persevered. We will also be one day closer to freedom, broken chains and deliverance from our problem or situation. Sometimes we allow our pain or worries to consume us even when we don’t intend to and before we know it, we’ve opened the door to fear and anxiety. We allow other people’s words or actions to harm us in such a way that we either implode or explode, never feeling peace, only turmoil. Or we may be worried about our health or a family problem and spend day and night thinking about it. Many times we stuff it down and even fool ourselves into thinking we’ve let it go or even given it to God only to find out it’s still there when the next situation pops up. It’s still there, waiting to be used by the enemy to stop us from moving forward in our healing. Now we are left wondering “how do we break the cycle?” or “is it even possible to be healed?”
Some roots are strong and very long and it takes time to dig them out and break them. God can certainly break us free from anything immediately, but sometimes He does make us wait, taking HIS time to heal us because we need to learn many things during the healing process such as patience, forgiveness, perseverance, etc. These things that we learn makes us stronger as we use the weapon He gave us…the Sword of the Spirit…to battle with when we need to. This, in turn, draws us closer to God and increases our faith.
A little while after hearing this song, I heard another song and knew the Lord was speaking to me. It was “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”. The lyrics that jumped out at me were:
“What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!”
Here lies much of our problem. We do not carry everything to God in prayer. We may toss up some prayers here and there but many times we choose just to carry the baggage around with us. Or we lay it down and pick it right back up again. There is something else we have forgotten…Christ has already won our battle on the cross but we have an enemy that likes to make us think that isn’t the case and we will never win the battle. The only way we can’t win the battle is if we choose to handle it our own way and continue to hold on to our baggage.
So how do we win this battle? On our knees in prayer utilizing the Sword of the Spirit…the Bible. How do I know it works? Because I had to do it until healing came. I then had to surrender the problem to the Lord. This means that every time the problem came up in my mind, I had to surrender it which means literally telling God I give it to Him, asking Him to take it from me. I had to use the Sword of the Spirit to combat any negative or worrisome thoughts. If it was fear or anxiety, then I had to speak the scriptures out loud that dealt with fear and anxiety. I then had to raise my shield of faith to protect myself from the fiery darts of lies thrown at me and declare in the name of Jesus and in faith that God will deliver me, will help me, had already fought my battle for me and won it at the cross. Here is what we don’t always understand…not all battles are won in a day though we can have victory in one day of battle. Jesus had victory when He was out in the desert and approached by Satan three times to tempt Him. But Satan did not stop coming back to try again to temp Him again. Luke 4:13 states:
“Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time”
This means Satan did return to try again and he will do the same with us. This is why it’s extremely important that we not only wear the armor of God but we know how to use it. If we fail to learn how to use it or choose not to use it, we then only set ourselves up for failure and this is why many either never get out of bondage or return back to bondage.
If you want to win this battle, it must be done on your knees, taking it to God in prayer, wearing the armor of God and utilizing every piece of it. If a soldier goes out to battle without his helmet, chances are he won’t come back alive. If he goes out without his weapon, chances are he will either be captured or killed. He has more of a chance surviving when he is in full battle gear and utilizing his weapon than he does leaving some of it behind.
One more vital piece of information to win this battle. God must be your battle buddy. You can’t win this battle without Him. He must be with you everywhere you go. He is the one who will give you the strength and endurance to continue on. He is the one who can and will break your chains.
If you are trying to win a battle but you are still struggling with it, maybe it’s time to check your battle gear…the helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, shoes of the gospel of peace, shield of faith and the sword of the spirit. If you are not wearing and utilizing your battle gear, then you are not fully understanding spiritual warfare and how to stand your ground and win the battle. If you are not battling on your knees in prayer then you may only have half the strength to endure. If you are not surrendering your situation to the Lord and trust that He will take care of it, then maybe you aren’t raising your shield of faith.
Take the time to check your battle gear and see where the problem is. Once you begin wearing it and utilizing it, battling on your knees in prayer and surrendering your problem to the Lord, you will see a change. Don’t be discouraged if you have to keep battling it…just like a prize fighter, the more you practice and train, the stronger you become and the more fights you win!
“Lord, I admit I cannot win this battle without you. I confess I am not wearing and utilizing my battle gear like I should. Lord, help me to change this and win this battle for good. Help me to endure until you deliver me completely. Thank you for winning this battle at the cross for me. Protect me, guide me and guard me. In Jesus name I pray…Amen.”