XENA, WARRIOR PRINCESS

Every Christian is drafted into service in God’s army. Women too. We are meant to be warriors. Let’s not be tempted to jump directly in our thoughts to the time when Christ returns with a holy army of angels to fight with the rulers of this world (physical and spiritual). We are in a battle for good in this world right now. What war are we in right now and how do we fight it?

Of course, our greatest war is the battle for our spiritual life. By that, I mean the battle for our hearts and minds – our fight to live in the “new man” and not the “old man” of the flesh. In Christ, we already have the victory. But, our carnal natures have not yet surrendered. (Well, at least mine hasn’t.) And we know our enemy is not going to give up until we are dead and he cannot reach us anymore.

So, when we put on the whole armor of God, and stand to fight, (Eph. 6:11) how do we fight? Who do we fight? What do we fight?

• We do the inward fighting.

The inward fight is really just fighting our own minds, thoughts and human nature. See 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, especially verse 5 “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” When every thought is a captive to God, our words and deeds automatically are captives too.

Some ideas on capturing our thoughts and making them prisoners of war:

• Our thoughts may be influenced by the things we spend time with, like TV or books or music or social media. So, the fight might start with unplugging from them or just with using them wisely. There is some good, Biblical, informative and educational stuff on TV, in books and on the Internet. There is also a lot that is not. So, we may need to start by carving out some time without them so we have time for the next step.
• We also spend dedicated time with God and Christ, reading the Bible, praying, and meditating. The Sabbath was made especially for this and so was the tool of fasting.
• Finally, we spend time with people who are a positive influence and use that “iron sharpening iron” thing to sharpen our swords of truth.

2. We let God do the outward fighting.

There are many places where the Bible says “the Lord will fight for you.”

One of my favorites is Exodus 14:13-14 “And Moses said unto the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The LORD will fight for you and you shall hold your peace.”  I like it because Israel did nothing on the fighting front. They cried to God to be free and then, when the time came, they ran away.

There is no scripture that indicates we NT Christians should go on the attack on anything besides our own human nature or even that we need to do battle. Look up the word “fight” in the New Testament and you won’t find a call to fight others.

God tells us to trust Him to do those outward battles with bosses and coworkers and other 501c3’s and the government, etc. There will be times when we have to stand up for what is right – when injustice occurs. But that is not the same as attacking. There will also be times when we just see the opportunity to run and we run as far and as fast as we can.

Doesn’t sound very warrior like, does it? Ah, but it should. Fighting our own human nature is hard and it should still feel awesome when you win! Handing over the other battles to God is also a fight – one with our own pride and human nature that thinks we can do it ourselves or that we “must” do something.

Whether we win an internal a battle over something like a tendency to gossip or whenever God intervenes with a boss over getting the Sabbath off (as recently happened for a friend of mine – praise God!) it is still a battle won. And you are in the winning army. Winning is winning – whether you are the warrior princess or just a sidekick/trusted friend.

So, fight on, my fellow Xena, Warrior Princesses. You are battling now, but the victory is sure and the crown is yours.