Fighting Words Part 2

I’ve been blessed recently by Ellie Holcomb’s 'Fighting Words'. It is an anthem that calls us to pick up the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God and to fix our eyes on Jesus. It inspires this second reflection on an episode in my life where I needed fighting words. Read part 1 here

The problem with Satan’s lies, is that they have just enough truth in them to seem real. And often, they’re spoken by those we trust and so they slide insidiously into our brains as spiritual wisdom. It can be a tricky spot for singles, because there are so many of these lies out there, and we can feel alone in the battle to combat them. I remember being counselled to marry a Christian acquaintance, who I knew wouldn’t spur me on to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, simply because he also was a Christian who desired to get married. And then came the lie: “If only you were less intense about loving Jesus, you’d have plenty of opportunities to get married.” There it was. The lie gripped my heart and dug its way down to lodge itself in my soul. For years, I felt shame at growing as a Christian, accusing myself of arrogance, selfishness and being the creator of my own misery.

Amazingly, given how powerful that sentence was at one time, I now have trouble remembering it. To tell this story, I have to search through the archives of my brain, trying to find that one sentence. The difference? A few years ago, I confessed these doubts to an older, wise friend, and she named them for what they were: lies of Satan. The words that I had taken as Christian counsel were in fact the opposite. And so my friend prayed fighting words over that memory. She prayed that God would remove that damaging phrase from my memory and replace it instead with the truth of how he sees me from his fighting words: the Bible. And indeed I now see myself as an heir (Rom 8:17), as holy and beloved (Col 3:12), as worth fighting for.

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword.” Hebrews 4:12