After work one day, I decided to go for a short run. There’s a great route that’s really close to the college I work at that takes you along an estuary which gives you glorious views of the local landscape. It also offers some quite violent crosswinds sometimes that can quite literally take your breath away!
I was on this route for about 2 miles, and it took most of my strength not to be pushed into a ditch due to the severity of the wind. This got me thinking about the “winds” that try to push us off course in our walk with God. It could be a habit you are caught up in, gossip, negative words, or any number of things that we can give into that takes us off God’s path for us. We all have something, and the devil knows our weaknesses and the angle at which to hit us with whatever “wind” we’re affected by.
It reminded me of the scripture in James 4v7,
“So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
My run reminded me that resisting the devil isn’t a single event, after which we bask in the glory of our success. I know in my own life; I have congratulated myself one minute and then the next minute find myself in a position where I have to ask for God’s forgiveness again. Fortunately for us, God’s grace has no end. However, for us to be able to live our lives as an effective witness to Christ, we need to “run with endurance the race that God has set before us” (Hebrews 12 v1.)
Endurance and perseverance aren’t about never falling or slipping, it’s picking ourselves up again and getting back on the correct course. Proverbs 24 v 16 reminds us of this when it says, “for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity” (ESV.) I think it’s useful to remember this so that when we do blow off course, we don’t waste time and energy berating ourselves, as this is a great outcome for the enemy, in effect we’re doing his job for him.
How far we are blown off course depends heavily on how quickly we notice our change in course and the strategies we develop to help us resist the crosswinds. This is a task that we cannot sustain by ourselves, the devil is too determined to see our impact for sharing the Gospel diminished and by ourselves, we’re too easily picked off. Ecclesiastes 4 v 12 says “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”
What crosswind is trying to blow you off course? Who do you have to stand back-to-back with? If you don’t have someone, pray for opportunities to build relationships that will help you stay on the path God has laid out for you to run. In the process, you’ll also be helping other guys to stand and resist the devil.
Also be encouraged by the fact that Jesus, who is completely for us, stood against and defeated all temptation. C.S. Lewis put it this way, “once the wind of temptation gets strong enough, the man lies down, giving in and thus not knowing what it would have been like 10 minutes later. Jesus never lay down [to temptation]; he endured all our temptations and testings without ever giving in. He, therefore, knows the strength of temptation better than any of us. Only he knows the true cost.”
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