By Ab Mol
When it comes to the Christian life, the Bible is full of comparisons related to struggle. In the New Testament, the word 'struggle' appears regularly and is spoken not least by Jesus himself. Even the well-known good advice to Timothy (1 Timothy 6:12) by Paul to fight the good fight of faith cannot be missing in this context.
Well it so happens that the word combination 'spiritual battle' does not appear in the Bible. Here on the mission field, we do refer to it often. You in your context might too. The spiritual, in the negative sense, is also just visible in Thailand. Like in the life of one of our brothers, who is occupied by something that makes his mind anxious, laughable, screaming and people-shy. In all his anxiety, he regularly cries out to Jesus, who leaves no prayer standing. Not even our brother.
It is also regularly visible in a positive sense, when we see the Holy Spirit convicting people of sin, of righteousness and of judgement. This leads to those special moments when people in a closed culture openly forgive and ask for forgiveness. It is extra special when this culminates in shared praise of the Saviour. Speaking of good fight: doesn't the saying go 'singing is praying twice'? The devil and his whole gang cannot hear it.
Precisely those positive moments are often preceded by a long period of inner struggle and not wanting to give up the old, the familiar, the learned. Fear is a bad counsellor, especially in these cases. After all, fear can have only one source: the evil one, the one who loves to make anxious.
Personally, we sometimes feel the effects of struggle here, for example, when there are those God-given moments when you can get the Gospel out to someone, or to a group, that you can utter the right phrases and language doesn't feel like a hindrance for a while. And then you come home on the wings of Isaiah 40:31 and within ten minutes the evil one whispers all joy out of your heart. Struggle.
The question then is: what do we point people to in such moments? What do we point each other to in such moments? Do we hang in there a bit despondent and think 'that's just spiritual struggle'? Or do we point each other to Paul's good advice: we fight a good fight, we grasp for the eternal life to which we are called.
A spiritual battle is a good battle - or ... a good battle is a spiritual battle.
