February 02 2026

Monday February 02

“Be Strong in the Lord”

Ephesians 6:10-12

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Today we're looking at Ephesians 6:10-12. In this passage, the Apostle Paul is reminding and instructing the church to understand the real battle that we're all in. A battle with evil forces, the devil himself and the forces of hell that are actually at war with us. Paul tells us in verse 10: “Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might”. We should always remember my friend our battle is not ours, it is the Lord's. We are not strong enough to fight against Satan. Remember that great verse in 1 John 4:4, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world”. 

You can't fight the devil in your own power. “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might”. Oh my friend, we stand in His power and in His might that is mightier than the power of Satan. As powerful as Satan is, he's not mightier than God. Always remember that. Then secondly, notice what Paul says in verse 11, “Put on the whole armor of God that you might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”. The wiles of the devil is a word that means those crafty strategies and clever schemes that he comes up with to deceive you. We think back to Genesis 2 when the devil showed up for the first temptation in humanity and that he tempted Eve with.

Satan made her question God's word and then began to change it. That is an attempt of Satan, his deceitful device to cause us to question the authority of God over our lives. What should be the finally authority over our lives? Of course it is the Word of God! Now, if you go back to this passage of scripture in Ephesians 5, we are told to submit ourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord. Secondly, Paul then talks about wives submitting to husbands. The he talks about husbands loving the wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. How did Christ love and give Himself for the Church?

We look back to Philippians 2:5-11, where we read how Christ was obedient unto death even the death of the cross. Why? Because He humbled Himself. He submitted to the authority of the Father. He did the Father's will. We read where Jesus said several times in the Gospel of John, “I came to do my Father's will”. And we find that He even cried out there in the garden before He went to the cross, “Not my will but thy will be done”. Jesus submitted to the authority of the Father and He became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. This is where we can begin to understand this principle of authority.

We must remember that there's no authority on planet earth that's not there, but that God placed it there (Romans 13:1-2). This includes government authorities, parental authorities, school authorities, work authorities, whatever authority is over our life. God has placed the authority of the church over our life. In 2 Corinthians 2:11 we are told that we should not be ignorant of Satan's devices, his schemes. What is his scheme? To cause you to question God's Word and God's authority that's been placed over your life.

Remember this passage in 2 Corinthians is about a man Paul is asking the church at Corinth to forgive. Why? In first Corinthians, this man was in a sinful condition. He was having incest with his stepmother and Paul said you put him out of the church. You put him and turn him over to Satan (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). When you put him over to Satan, outside the church, he goes outside the umbrella of God's protection over his life. Then Satan is there to deal with him in such a way that he runs back to the church. He asks for forgiveness and he's restored back to fellowship. Paul says “Forgive him”!

Forgiveness is a major thing. That's why the passage in Ephesians 4 ends with, “Forgive one another as Christ has forgiven you”. When we understand this principle of authority of coming under God's authority, we're dealing with what God is teaching us about submission. As we submit to the authorities God has over our lives, we have a special protection from God, over Satan and from Satan attacking us and deceiving us and leading us astray. Oh, it's so important to understand this.

When we begin to understand this, it makes a major difference. That's why he says, remember, we do not wrestle with flesh and blood. Our battle is not with people. Often that is what we start doing, but we are fighting the wrong battle. We get bitter because we won't forgive. We come out from under authority because we won't forgive. We won't submit to what God is doing in our life. He's using sometimes people to bring to our attention some weaknesses, some things in our life that shouldn't be there.

When we submit to God's discipline and what God is doing sometimes through people, we realize that they are not our problem. Our problem is the devil deceiving us to get us to do what we want to do. He's out to destroy us (John 10:10). Don't let him do that to you. My friend, God bless you as you think on these things today and put yourself under God's authority, God's Word, and live for Him every day. This is the only way to “be strong in the Lord”.

God bless you, and may you have a wonderful, wonderful day.