Everything is still and quiet as the sun prepares to rise and herald in a new day. The silence is suddenly broken by the crackle of my radio. “Victor 1, the platoon is set and waiting on your go.” It’s the moment I’ve been waiting for. After hours poring over maps, relentless study of my enemy, and sending out patrols all through the night to probe for weaknesses, we were ready to unleash destruction on our opponent. As their eyes struggled to adjust to the rising sun, we sprang from behind them and ended the fight before it even began.
Thankfully for them, this was just a training exercise. I shake hands with my fellow platoon commander, we debrief on lessons learned, and prepare to fight another day. The scene I have just described is a relatively normal day in the life of a warfighter. In the military you prepare for the battles you face, but as Christians we are engaged every day in a battle against our flesh and we act unprepared. We allow the enemy to slip behind our defenses instead of guarding our heart and waging our own fight in return. So how do we flip the script? How do we prepare our hearts to wage this battle against sin instead of continually finding ourselves as prey?
Understand the Flesh’s Strategy
The first part of winning any battle is to understand your opponent. While there are many strategies our flesh uses to wage war against our desires to honor God, two seem to continually surface. The first is to make us feel isolated and alone. We begin to think that no one understands us and that if anyone else was tempted this way, they would lose the fight too. While this line of reasoning is likely common to all of us at times, Paul directly contradicts that rationale of our flesh (1 Corinthians 10:13). He reminds us that there is not a single temptation that you face that isn’t common to other believers. How refreshing is that? As you struggle to fight your battle, just pick your head up and look around. You are surrounded by other people fighting. If God is able to help them find victory, don’t you think He can do the same for you?
The second common tactic we face is a strike against our “center of gravity.” In the military, this refers to the thing of central importance and strength. In biblical counseling, we might call this our predominant heart idol(s). It’s the thing we feel like we can’t live without or the thing that we worship above all else. When this heart idol is threatened, not only do we want to capitulate to our flesh, we often join our flesh in waging war against whatever is threatening to take our idol away (James 4:1). We wage a counteroffensive against this attack by finding our center of gravity in Jesus Christ.
For example, my two predominant heart idols are comfort and affirmation. When I am tempted to give in to my flesh in search of sinful comfort, or worse, join it in fighting against others, I must look to Christ. For me fighting the battle in my mind sounds like this, “Jesus left the comfort of heaven for me, so I can forgo this comfort to honor Him.” When my heart is tempted to seek the approval of men, I need to remember the way God views me and find my affirmation in Him. Because of the work of Christ, my identity is hidden in Him (Colossians 3:3). Stop and appreciate this truth. My value is found in being a child of God, the One who created the universe and everyone in it (1 John 3:1). What affirmation could be sweeter? Remembering this beautiful truth should offer a knockout punch to any need I have for affirmation.
Learn and Change
I once had a leader who quipped, “The worst mistake is the one you don’t learn from.” The same idea may be applied to the way we foolishly return to the same sin repeatedly. The Bible uses some colorful imagery to highlight this point (Proverbs 26:11). Despite this warning, as Christians we tend to treat certain sins like our favorite music playlist. We hit shuffle and act surprised when that familiar tune comes on again. We are aware of the things that tempt us, and instead of renewing our minds and killing our sin, we assume we will have the strength to win the battle the next time. This is the way our flesh continually slips behind our heart’s line of defense.
Paul reminds us that as Christians, our lives should look different each day as we learn to live in Christ (Romans 6:1-4, Ephesians 4:17-32). As believers, we often act like this change is some kind of herculean feat worthy of a Nobel Peace prize. But really it is simply the small choices we make each day to glorify God instead of our flesh. Think through your patterns of sin. Where are you making provisions for the flesh to win (Romans 13:14)? Take the time to think of ways that you can change that pattern by bringing God glory out of thanks for His great love for you.
God Has Already Won
Following WWII, it was common for Japanese soldiers to continue waging guerilla warfare in the territories they were stationed. Some of this continued for decades. The reason? The soldiers refused to believe that the war was over. This is how our flesh seems to respond to the victory Christ has won for us. It doesn’t want to accept its defeat. It desperately tries to fight for any control or victory it can muster that would pull our heart away from God.
As you wage war against your flesh and you feel like the temptation is too strong to resist, remember that God has already paid the price for you to be free (Colossians 2:13-14). Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11). The flesh wins the skirmish when we stop believing that God’s victory only really helps us with our salvation, but the fight for daily living still rests solely on us. We are not alone in our fight against sin. We prevail with God, through the Holy Spirit, because of the victory Christ has won (2 Peter 1:3-11).
If you feel discouraged because it seems like your flesh’s warfare is winning out in your life, stop and remember that God has given us the Holy Spirit as a seal of His victory (Ephesians 1:13-14). Like the Master Tactician, the Holy Spirit works within you to help wage war against the flesh and remind us of who we are in Christ. The Spirit guides us in truth that directly combats the snares of our flesh (John 16:13). Take heart. Today’s battle can be won because the war is already over, and God reigns in victory.
Conclusion
Believers, we are at war each day against the desires of our flesh. Are you engaging in the fight? Are you finding victory by looking to Christ? Do you trust the Master Tactician to guide you and have the courage to follow His battle plans and not your own? Our victory is already assured, so let’s live like it today.
