Wrestling Demons

Wrestling Demons.  You’ve got yours.  I’ve got mine.  “Demons” can be defined as anything that distracts us in our walk with God or disrupts our relationship with God.  For some people, a demon can be poor self-image that causes a person to give up trying to live like a faithful follower of Jesus.  For others, a demon might be an inflated ego that causes them to lose sight of their need to live as a Christian disciple.  Demons can change form over time, but few of us, if any of us, ever get rid of them entirely.

Down through the ages, saints have discovered one way to gain victory over our demons is to praise the Lord.  In a book one of our men’s groups studied on the life of St. Francis, author John Michael Talbot has said that the members of the monastery where he lives all begin the day with the same simple prayer upon first waking in the morning.  It is a prayer of praise that I’ve adopted and try to pray when I first open my eyes each day, although, admittedly, it sometimes it takes me a while to remember to pray it:

May Jesus Christ be praised today and every day.

One of my favorite contemporary Christian songs is the song “Praise the Lord,” recorded by the Imperials and others.  It celebrates how praise can help us overcome the demons we face.

When you’re up against a struggle that shatters all your dreams

And your hopes have been cruelly crushed by Satan’s manifested schemes

And you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fears

Don’t let the faith you’re standing in seem to disappear

Praise the Lord, He can work through those who praise Him

Praise the Lord, for our God inhabits praise

Praise the Lord, for the chains that seem to bind you serve only to remind you that they drop powerless behind you when you praise Him

Now Satan is a liar and he wants to make us think

That we are paupers when he knows himself

We’re children of the king

So lift up the mighty shield of faith for the battle must be won

We know that Jesus Christ is risen

So the work’s already done

Praise the Lord, He can work through those who praise Him

Praise the Lord, for our God inhabits praise

Praise the Lord for the chains that seem to bind you drop powerless behind you when you praise Him

The first weekend in October, 2023, I will be on an Emmaus team with Jim Melrose, our former lay leader here at Bethlehem, now serving as a local pastor in our district.  I will present a talk during the weekend on the “obstacles to grace” which is another way of describing the demons that attack us and can hold us back spiritually. 

One of those obstacles is unforgiveness, toward God, ourselves, or others.  In Matthew 6:15, Jesus says:

For if you forgive other people their failures, your Heavenly Father will forgive you.  But if you will not forgive other people neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses. 

As I have mentioned before, I grew up with my maternal grandparents.  My aunts and uncles were like brothers and sisters.  Actually, when I was very young, I thought my aunts and uncles  were my brothers and sisters.  While I was serving as a pastor in Wichita, Kansas, one of my aunts was brutally robbed and murdered in Clarksville, Tennessee.  She had been in a very physically abusive marriage and left her husband just before Christmas.  She went to work at a K-Mart store in Clarksville to provide for her small children and was laid off immediately after the holidays.  She then took the only job she could find as a convenience store clerk.  She was robbed and killed less than a week after starting the job.  The man who killed her was put on trial just as I moved back to Tennessee.  I attended the trial with my mother and other family members.  He is now in prison along with others who were part of the robbery.  

I wish that I could say that I have completely forgiven the man who took my aunt’s life, but I know that is probably not true.  I do know I have made progress towards forgiving him.  I also know that to the degree that I have not forgiven him, my relationship with God is not all that it could be.

Obstacles to grace or “demons” are real.  They prevent us from experiencing all that God has for all of us.  But God’s grace is also real.  In Christ we can and will overcome our obstacles to grace.

I once heard that our enemies need our prayers more than they need our hate.  I believe it.  I also believe God is at work healing me and helping me to completely forgive my aunt’s murderer and all others I struggle to forgive.  I do pray for him and I do praise God for my aunt and all the time I spent with her. 

Jesus Christ is always worthy of our praise, this day and every day.