The Advantage

DEVOTION
2 THESSALONIANS
THE ADVANTAGE
2 Thess 3:2-3
2 And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
NIV
Some of my fellow believers, especially in other parts of the world may very well be, even in these days, persecuted by evil and wicked men. I should be praying for them. I certainly do not think I have much to worry about here in my country as far as me having to deal with being delivered from wicked and evil men. Yet there certainly are an awful lot of people who do not have faith. Could I assume then if someone does not have faith that person is evil and wicked and therefore maybe I do have to deal with that in my life? Maybe it is not that evil and wicked people would do me physical harm, but surely they might very well do me spiritual harm. If I were captured by their ideas, their thinking, their spiritual blindness, their ways of living life then I would surely need to be delivered from them. It may not even be that they are seeking me any harm, but simply that I would be drawn toward the concepts of this world in which they have citizenship. It has to be an either or situation. Either someone has faith or they don’t and those who do not have faith must be considered evil and wicked. Everyone has to serve somebody, either the Lord or Satan but you have to serve somebody. I have chosen to serve him who is faithful. I have chosen to serve him who has the ability and will strengthen and protect me from the evil one. I am so grateful for his strengthening. I know that without his faithfulness and his strengthening I would certainly not be able to withstand the assaults hurled at me from the evil one. God has provided me with a shield of faith to protect me from all his flaming arrows. It surely gives me the picture of battle lines between me and him, between me and wicked and evil people. Yet how am I to spread the message if I am on the battlefield? It is spiritual warfare, and although I must not allow them to infiltrate my thinking, I should do all I can in my power to infiltrate their thinking with the message, the good news of Jesus Christ, in an effort to win them over from their side of the battlefield to Gods side. As I am armed with all of the armor of God and the truth I have the advantage.