A Lazy Kind of Day
From the Armor Series
“I pray that He may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit.” Ephesians 3:16 CSB
It was a Saturday morning. The kind of morning that you really want to hit the snooze button indefinitely and just sleep in. But reality set in as my feet hit the floor. Swirling around in my mind was the busy, crazy events that seemed to jam-pack the day before it could even get started and I could feel the chaos trying to overtake my soul. I walked into my son’s room and proceeded to wake him. “Mama – why do we have to get up and go?” he said. “I just want to have a lazy kind of day.”
Truth be told, so did I. I couldn’t blame him for feeling like that. I wanted nothing more than to crawl back under the covers and surrender to just being lazy. It had been a busy week already and today was scheduled to be even crazier. My cozy bed was calling my name and it was all I could do to not give in to its beckoning. Ever feel like that?
It’s alright to have an occasional lazy day to rest and recharge from a busy schedule but one thing that we must be on our guard about is being lazy in our walk with God. As we have been discussing, we have a real enemy, and he is very strategic in his strategy against God’s people. He understands that he no longer has control of our eternal destination once we become a believer in Jesus Christ, but that doesn't stop him from trying to derail our journey and render us ineffective for the gospel. Since he can no longer access our soul, he stops at nothing to distract, discourage, disable, and divide us.
The enemy leads the chorus as he sings the lullaby of lethargic Christian living. How do I know this? Because this is part of my story. For years he was successful at singing me to sleep as I sat faithfully on a church pew Sunday after Sunday. I was content to sit and listen but was too lazy to actually allow the truth of God’s word to change me or my situation.
I was comfortable, apathetic, and unaware of the battle raging while being lulled right to sleep spiritually. At times, going to church felt like an inconvenience. And life was just too busy to find any time to read my Bible.
As Christians, we have become quite comfortable in general in our routines and conveniences. We tend to get all tangled up in the busyness of our lives. And even though we have the very best intentions, we are just too exhausted by the end of the day to do anything for God. The twins of shame and guilt hang out with us and haunt us day after day. And we try to combat them with excuses of our overextended schedule. Friend, this isn’t by accident. It’s on purpose and is strategically targeted by a real enemy.
It’s not by accident that God starts out the passage on the armor of God with the words, “Be Strong” and “Stand firm.” When we stand firm, we are on our guard and alert to the schemes of the enemy. Standing firm is polar opposite of being spiritually asleep. There is absolutely no way we can be alert and guarded if we are asleep.
See, spiritual warfare doesn’t take a vacation. There is no time off. Spiritual warfare is constant.
Priscilla Shirer puts it this way, “The call to victorious Christian living is a wake-up call out of laziness, urging you to rise up and take serious action. The strength you need for resisting and standing firm depends on it. Satan and the demons of darkness are hoping you’ll be disengaged and disinterested instead of alert, aware, and active.”
Living a lazy, lethargic Christian life is most certainly a way to give the enemy a victory but it won’t do anything for our own victory except jerk it right out from under our feet. This kind of lifestyle really isn’t an option for the Christian, but the enemy is rocking many a believer to sleep and rendering them useless for the kingdom of God. It’s time to wake up and take back what the enemy has stolen. Are you with me?
God,
Thank you for opening my eyes to the spiritual battle raging for my victory. I can’t wait until the day that you throw the enemy in the lake of fire for eternity. He is nothing more than a liar and a destroyer. Help me to stand firm and be strong. Teach me how to wear my armor to be victorious against his schemes. In Jesus name. Amen.
Dig Deeper:
“Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.” Ephesians 6:10 CSB
“Standing firm in the armor of God doesn’t stop the spiritual warfare from raging. It stops it from defeating you.” – Tony Evans