Pardon Me Sir, May I Borrow Your Tank?
Why Christians should start learning to use their weapons instead of the enemy’s
Keith D Troop
7/15/15
Fear is the only weapon left to the powerless. Those types of attacks that gain no strategic ground and that are said to show the ‘resolve’ of our foe and that are focused against those that had no reason to think they would be attacked, are designed to fill us with fear. That’s why we call it ‘terrorism’ and those who do these things ‘terrorists.’ If those persons acting in this manner had any real power, they would simply exercise it against those targets that vexed them, rather than spending all their time and resources trying to make their targets afraid.
As a child, I spent much of my life afraid (if we’re being brutally honest I can get there pretty quick still to this day). One day, I noticed that I had outstripped many of my peers in the area of physical growth (I got big, though still painfully thin, a malady time has corrected). More importantly, my peers also noticed and I stopped being bullied. A few well-timed events made me aware of some form of shift in our relationship and I soon found myself as the bully. In my defense, I did not know that was what I was doing until a friend pointed it out. Having always operated from a place of fear, I did not realize that my actions were now causing fear in others. More importantly, these actions did not make me any less afraid, they just changed the things I was afraid of.
Satan’s only weapon against us is fear. He uses his fear-based control of the lost to send fear-inducing messages against us. When we hear those messages, he adds additional messages of fear to make us extra afraid. Those still lost in the darkness are well versed in the language of fear. It is the only language they know well.
Recently, several things have happened to cause fear in the hearts of Christians. If you are a Christian in America, you’ve probably heard about them (especially on Facebook and Twitter). The most distressing thing in this is that I have seen Christians responding to being afraid by trying to make people afraid. If they are in the darkness, they are already afraid. It’s like threatening a sick person by telling them you are going to make them sick. That is not the weapon of people living in the light. It is the weapon of people living in darkness. Those who speak the language of darkness, the language of fear are far more talented in its communication than those who have been ransomed into the light. We are borrowing the weapon of the powerless to express the immeasurable power of an infinite God. We are asking Satan, the most defeated thing in the history of defeated things, if we can poke around in his armory for something to stop his plans with. He is most accommodating here as he knows we’ll never beat him like that and more importantly, he loves seeing God’s children act like Satan’s slaves.
History tells us again and again that you do not allow the enemy to dictate the place where or the manner or the strategy with which you engage him. Yet we are constantly trying to react in kind to those who are misguidedly being used against us.
God does not give us a spirit of fear (a proclivity to be afraid at the things we hear), but of power and love and of a sound mind. A sound mind can hear a fear inducing message and discern that it comes from one who is powerless and therefore is nothing to be feared. Because the Christian is powerful and not powerless, he has the POWER to choose to love. A powerless person cannot choose to do anything. All his decisions are made by the motivation of fear. A powerful person can decide whether to respond with fear or love. Only a powerful person has the option to love. That’s what our faith is all about. God empowering us to choose to love Him. A power that starts by Him first loving us. Power breeds power. Fear breeds fear. Love breeds love. And perfect love drives out fear. When we respond to the weapon of our enemy (fear) by trying to send fear back, we are adding to his strength and denying our own. Everything that has happened recently is designed to make us afraid. Unfortunately we responded with fear and continue to react fearfully. Our politics, our social media, our interactions with the world should be free from fear, empowered with love and directed by sound minds. If that is not how we are reacting to these things we see, then we should be silent. This sums up our best reaction to the current political climate. If we are not sure what that looks like, then without fear, we should talk with each other and ask how to best express God’s love through His truth in whatever situation is causing an unsound mind. Then we pray and prepare and when the time is right, we act.
