More Than Conquerors

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Ephesians 6:12 has long been one of my favorite verses. It can be so easy for me to get distracted by the little things in life. This verse reminds me that the phyiscial struggless in life, both the little and big things, are not the biggest stuggle I'm in. As a believer, my biggest struggle is the spiritul battle.  Unfortuantely, that can easily become the first struggle to be forgotten. Spiritual battles aren't often seen, so the visible difficulities can quickly take over my focus. That's why I love Ephesians 6:12; no matter what is going on in my life it refocuses my attention on the reality of Spiriual struggles.
This week has been a perfect example of that. I spent the past three days in San Jose and La Riconada where SCORE missionaries work. For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to visit villages like this, let me try to paint a picture of it for you. It's a long, bumpy ride along a dirt road to enter either village. The homes vary from small concert buildings to roughly constructed structures of tin or woods. Few, if any, have running water inside their home; each village has a well/pump for water.  Most do have electric wires running to their home, but the power goes out often. It might be on for 6 hours a day. Or there might not be power for three days. Food comes mostly from what can be grown or raised in the area, which isn't enough many times. Its not anywhere close to the American idea of a decent standard of living. So it's easy as an American to visit and think about all the American conveniences they don't have: toilets, indoor plumbing, safety, sanitation, proper medical care, air conditioning, abundant store bought food, etc.

Yet the lack of material things is not the biggest issue in San Jose and La Riconada. During the VBS program on Friday I held a baby with a little pouch tied around her ankles. Her mother has taken her to the loca witch doctor. The pouch is meant to keep evil spirits away from her. There's a very real Spiritual battle going on in these villages; voodoo is very common, but it's often hidden. Had I not known to suspect it I won't have thought to ask about that strange little anklet. The battle here is not against flesh and blood but spiritual powers.

While most Americans pobably didn't grow up with Voodoo common place, that doesn't mean we don't face spiritual battle. I wonder if being in America actually may make it harder to see the spiritual battles sometimes.  When I'm surrounded by modern conveniences and the comforts of a developed nation it's easy to get wrapped up in them and forget about the spiritual battle that is going on.  No matter what culture, country, economic status, or the condition of your home, everyone faces a spiritual battle, especially for believers.

However, as believers we know that Christ has won this Spiriual battle. "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39