57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Victory means that we can walk in a manner where we successfully resist temptation, where we exercise dominion over habitual sin, and we experience the peace and joy of Christ. As the thief, the devil, comes to steal, kill, and destroy, the Bible teaches that Jesus comes to give us abundant life. If we are living in less than what Christ promises, then we have to examine if there is some pattern or area of sin that has developed that holds us back...we have the tools - including the weapons of spiritual warfare and the full armor of God - that release the power of God to experience His victory!
2nd Corinthians 10 highlights a key to victory in Christ:
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
Yesterday represented yet another Doomsday scenario, the threat of an Internet virus that, left unaddressed, would isolate computer users from the Internet. USA Today reported, "no significant outages". So, I had to wonder, was this another Y2K-type incident where the fears were overblown? Or, did people take the necessary precautions to cleanse their computers from the potentially harmful entity?
I have a conclusion, but first, allow me to give some background. Yesterday, the FBI removed a safety net of protective servers erected last November to protect some 577,000 Windows PCs. The DNS Changer malware had possibly been loaded on computers by Estonian hackers who were arrested last fall.
Without
the FBI's safety net, those PCs would have been cut off from accessing
the Web, as authorities moved to dismantle the rogue servers that
criminals were using to control DNS Changer-infected machines.
USA Today reports that a minute after midnight on Monday, some 277,000 PCs, including 64,000 in the United States,
remained infected and at risk as the FBI took down its safety net.
That's a tiny fraction of the billions of Internet-connected computers
and mobile devices.
I believe the reason the percentage was so small was that people took the threat seriously - anti-virus software had become attuned to the virus, Internet Service Providers were working with their customers, and a website was set up so that people could access it and see if their computer was infected. I do think this was a very real situation, and diligence saved the day.
I thought about the importance of detection and remedy in our spiritual life. The enemy will attempt to lure us with particularly harmful thought patterns, that could develop into desires, and actions that cause untold harm to our relationship with God and with others. Sometimes Satan will plant a thought or series of thoughts - mental viruses, if you will - in our minds. If we dwell on those thoughts, they can grow and become more firmly implanted in our consciousness. Without the necessary identification and extraction, we lose our access - to the very throne of God - and we lose our fellowship with Him. Small thoughts and ideas can lead to big consequences and can wreak havoc in our spiritual life.
So, we replace thoughts not pleasing to the Lord with His Word, with godly thoughts, with meditation on developing godly character. We must take sinful desires seriously, resist temptation, and use our spiritual tools and the armor of God to walk in victory with Christ.
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