Ephesians 6:12 NLT
'For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the uinseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.'
The success of the HBO series Game of Thrones, based upon RR Martin’s multivolume books, has ensured that fantasy fiction is mainstream. Many of its contemporary characters are morally ambivalent. The innocent suffer and life is precarious. Perhaps the fantasy genre best depicts the reality of living life in today’s world. It’s less about escape than mere observation of the terrors that stalk us all.
The Bible’s acknowledgement that life is never plain sailing is once more fashionable and contemporary. I truly hope so, for to be blindsided to the reality of evil and the truth that how we live, both personally and corporately, has physical consequences, is to adopt a head buried deep in the ground mentally.
The battle for our mind is intense. It continues both when I’m awake and asleep. I am not one who is given to dreaming at night. But in recent months my sleep has been filled with disturbing dreams. Most of these I don’t remember, but awake with a sense of foreboding. I feel fear and my outlook on waking is pessimistic. I have to take my thoughts in hand and wage the warfare I need so that I recover a sound and strong mind to enter my day.
I have recognised that spiritual warfare is at present directed at my mind and it is a challenge to push back and wage the war myself to maintain my optimism in God. So much of perception is birthed in the mind, where the enemy is active and seeks to undermine our confidence. Beware of the wearing effect of such mental assault and put on the “helmet of salvation” (Ephesians 6:17), which is God’s provision for a sound mind.
QUESTION: Are you in a similar place to me?
PRAYER: Come close to me in my waking and my sleeping. Clothe me in a sound mind, and protect my thought life through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Released on 16 Jun 2020