Isn’t it funny how certain music, movies, or places can instantaneously generate a flood of memories from years past come to life again? These memories can be overwhelming sometimes because they feel like they only happened yesterday. We have difficulty remember where we placed our keys and cell phones sometimes and will go crazy for hours trying to locate them! And yet a song can be played on the radio that is 15 years old and instantly you can remember every detail of what life was like in that moment.
Today, I was driving in my old child-hood neighborhood and memory lane paid me a visit. But unlike that song on the radio that brings back memories of excitement, my neighborhood brought back memories of destruction. It was as if the enemy was using every weapon he had to attack me. To be honest, driving through the neighborhood caused these aggressive knots in my stomach to twist and turn. It almost felt like I was being condemned all over again.
The Lord at that very moment reminded me what his word said:
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
The mind becomes Satan’s main battleground for the believer. It’s the first place he seeks to attack when comes to Christians. If he can convince you that you’re a condemned, rotten Christian who doesn’t deserve the forgiveness of Jesus, he’s got you and the battle is won. Think about it. You start listening long enough to Satan’s lies, you slowly begin to forget the promises of Jesus and what His word declares.
We’re in the middle of a spiritual war, a fight that we can’t see. That’s why Paul said:
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 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” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
We cast EVERY thought to Jesus, because the enemy want’s us to forget that the battle that Christ fought on our behalf IS FINISHED. Our sins have been bought with a price, we are no longer our own, and we now identify with the cross!
“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him” (Romans 6:6-9).
My sin NO LONGER has dominion over my life. My sin and my past no longer define who I am in Christ today! I was bought with a price and now belong to Jesus because I recognize how He suffered for me, and I have invited Him into live in my heart! I’m a new creation because of Jesus.
As began to remember all of these promises, Satan’s ninja attacks were counter attacked by the promises of God’s Word, and the message of the cross! Satan may be a ninja, but I serve the ultimate ninja master who knows all of Satan’s fighting styles. Maybe your past is heavy, and perhaps you don’t care to unlock the memories that have been stowed away in your memory-safe for fear that Satan will use them against you. If Jesus lives in your heart, the safe has been cracked open, and Jesus has decided to pay in full YOUR DEBT to the extent that He no longer keeps any record of wrong against you.
Paul said it best:
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).
Let’s not allow our past to keeps us from the work of the ministry. We have a job to do. We have message to declare. We have been give the responsibility by Jesus TO MAKE DISCIPLES!
Lecrae’s lyrics on this subject are simple but to the point:
“The great commission says make disciples of all nations.
Have we even made them in our own nation?
Come on Christians!
Missions exist because worship doesn’t.
People don’t worship the God who made them.
We’re ambassadors.
Let’s go!”
