shawnethomas

Cheryl & I have a family “Messenger Chat” with our kids, so we can keep posted on all our goings on in the family, and we often send pictures back and forth. It’s really one of the best things we do on Facebook.  The other day our son David sent a picture of him playing the board game “Risk” with his kids for the first time. Of course he ended up winning. But I told him to enjoy it while he could. I used to always win, until our kids figured out the best way to give themselves a chance was to all gang up and knock me out first, and I don’t think I’ve ever won since!

This is similar to something we each have to go through every day in life. I’m thinking you probably already sense this; but you don’t get to just “cruise” through life, do you? No, we’ve got enemies who are fighting us every step along the way. The old English Book of Common Prayer from back in the 1500’s has a prayer that says: “From all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, Good Lord deliver us.” So for centuries, “the world, the flesh, and the devil” have been recognized by Christians as the forces that are teaming up against us spiritually, to fight against us as we try to walk with the Lord.

As we were doing our daily Bible readings this week, I came across James 3:15, where James told his readers that the “bitter jealousy and selfish ambition” among them was not from above, but is “earthly, natural, demonic.” I thought, wait a minute: this is: “the world, the flesh, and the devil” Christians have talked about all these years:

— “earthly” — of course means from “the world”

— “natural” — means from the “natural man,” the “flesh”

— And of course “demonic” is from “the devil.”

So this verse in James gives us a scriptural basis for seeing our enemies in the framework of “the world, the flesh, and the devil.”

And it’s not only here; we also see it in the first verses of Ephesians 2:2-3 which has all 3 also. It speaks of: