Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
—EPHESIANS 6:12
I woke up one morning in a twit. I don’t know what the official definition of a twit is. Nor am I completely sure twit is a real word. However, when you feel all twisted up with irritation sprinkled on top, twit seems fitting.
So, there I was in a twit on a new day.
Typically, I am a pretty gentle person. But on this day I could envision myself saying the perfect comeback to this person who hurt me and it felt good. I mentally weighed out all the many reasons I was perfectly justified in leveling the scales of hurt.
They dumped a bucket of hurt on me. The scale tipped heavy on my side.
Therefore, I should dump a bucket of hurt on them. Then the scales would be even and my twit would dissipate in this balance of hurt equality.
But something in my spirit didn’t feel better after I mentally walked through this leveling of the scales.
I felt heavy.
And that’s when it occurred to me.
The secret to healthy conflict resolution isn’t taking a you-against-me-stance, but realizing it’s all of us against Satan—he’s the real Enemy.
In God’s economy, people don’t stand on opposing sides of the conflict scale. People stand on one side and Satan stands on the other. When we dump hurt into one another’s lives, we aren’t leveling the conflict scale. We are just making the people side fall further and further while Satan’s side becomes more and more elevated.
Satan loves when we do his work for him by dumping on each other.
The secret to healthy conflict resolution isn’t taking a “you against me” stance. The secret is realizing it’s “us against Satan.” He’s the real Enemy here. In Ephesians 6:12 Paul reminds us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
But this is hard when all we see is that flesh-and-blood person standing there who quite honestly has managed to get on the last good nerve we have left.
This moment may seem like the perfect time to set our Christianity on the shelf.
In actuality though, moments of conflict are hands down the grandest opportunity to shame Satan back to hell.
When a Jesus girl rises up and gives unexpected gentle grace when she surely could have done an attitude cuss, the mystery of Christ is seen more clearly than ever.
That’s why Paul ends Ephesians 6 with a charge regarding our words.
After telling us in verse 12 that Satan is our real Enemy, reminding us to put on our spiritual armor each day, and reiterating the absolute necessity of prayer, He says one more thing. “Pray that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel” (v. 19).
The placement of this verse is crucial and intentional. What a choice we have to make.
Father, help me remember who my Enemy really is—and that You give me grace to pass along to others. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.