Today's Passage - Ephesians 6:10-11

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Ephesians 6:10-11   "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." For a basketball player, basic skills are very important. When you play alone, you may feel as if you were playing for the national team. However, true skills are tested in a game. Those with great basic skills can really control the ball, while others with poor basic skills will get the ball stolen from them. In secular practice, "basic skills" are something we cannot afford to overlook. Likewise, in spiritual practice, there are also basic spiritual skills. Here Paul mentioned to us two kinds of indispensable practices in our spiritual lives.   First, be strong in the Lord, as written in verse 10, because we are not fighting against someone of fleshly nature. Instead, we are fighting against the dark force behind this world. Even by now many Christians still don't understand that they are facing a spiritual warfare. The Bible clearly tells us: "Our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour". The devil always takes the joy from our lives, and brings us anxiety over the difficulty in our circumstances, and blocks us in our ministries. We feel powerless against attacks from the devil because we don't have the key to winning the spiritual battle. That is why we always feel frustration during our spiritual growth.      When Paul said that "you must be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power", he stressed that you don't just be in the Lord and in his mighty power once, but do so every day. This is a very critical basic skill in spiritual practice. How will you be in the Lord? Put on the full armor of God! If a soldier needs to go out and fight, he has to be well equipped, otherwise he will certainly be defeated. Put on the armor every day to fight the spiritual battle. Don't do the "spiritual streaking", or the devil will be given a chance to attack you right away.                                                                                     Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, may your Spirit open our hearts so that we can see that we are fighting a spiritual battle every day, and we can be strong by relying on the Lord and Your mighty power to be our daily help in the fight, instead of relying on ourselves. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!