For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against
Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You
have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
--Hebrews 12:3-4 If Satan opposes the new convert he opposes still more bitterly
the Christian who is pressing on toward a higher life in Christ.
The Spirit-filled life is not, as many suppose, a life of peace
and quiet pleasure. It is likely to be something quite the
opposite.
Viewed one way it is a pilgrimage through a robber-infested
forest; viewed another, it is a grim warfare with the devil.
Always there is struggle, and sometimes there is a pitched battle
with our own nature where the lines are so confused that it is
all but impossible to locate the enemy or to tell which impulse
is of the Spirit and which of the flesh....
My point here is that if we want to escape the struggle we have
but to draw back and accept the currently accepted low-keyed
Christian life as the normal one. That is all Satan wants. That
will ground our power, stunt our growth and render us harmless
to the kingdom of darkness.
Compromise will take the pressure off. Satan will not bother a
man who has quit fighting. But the cost of quitting will be a
life of peaceful stagnation. We sons of eternity just cannot
afford such a thing.
"Oh God, don't ever let me compromise to take the pressure off!
Keep me fit for battle; strengthen me for the constant warfare.
Don't ever let me settle for 'peaceful stagnation' as long as I
have breath to serve You. Amen."
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