"Engage"

"And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came, and drew nigh to meet David, that David hastened, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine." 1 Samuel 17:48

I woke up this morning hearing the word "engage" in my spirit. A couple of the definitions for the word engage are: to occupy oneself; become involved; enter into conflict. The Bible plainly lets us know that there is a very real spiritual battle going on in the world and that we have an enemy who has waged war against us for the purpose to kill, steal and destroy. When we realize that, we also have to realize that there are times when we have to get into the battle. We cannot stand idly by and do nothing.

Each day for forty days the giant Goliath would come out and threaten the army of Israel. But they did nothing. They just stared at him, commented on his size, focused on their inability to overcome him, hid behind one another and cowed down in fear. This was an army, they should have been doing what armies do best-- fight. No amount of hiding was going to "get rid of him". Fear and complacency are never weapons that bring victory over the enemy. It only adds strength to the opponent. As long as the Israelites stood back unwilling to engage in the battle, his threats did not stop and they were held prisoners to fear and discouragement.

The Israelites did not experience victory until David stepped up and engaged the giant. Once he did, the giant was defeated and the Philistine army was sent fleeing. After having endured his threats for forty days, the enemy was defeated in one day all because someone decided to engage instead of sit back and just "talk about it".

You can sit back and continue to talk about your enemy- how he has treated you, how big he is, how much power he has, how helpless you feel against him; or you can go out and met him face to face and do battle against him. There are two things that are for sure. 1) If you do nothing, he won't quit. He will continue to torment you. He will continue to threaten you. He will continue to defeat you. 2) If you engage him, you will defeat him. Did David lose the battle against the giant? No. The reasons why are plain: he knew that God was greater, he knew that this was more than just a battle between two natural armies, he knew that the Lord was with him, and he trusted fully in God's power to defeat and deliver them from the enemy.

You can go out there and defeat the enemy that keeps taunting and harassing you too. (Let me interject something here. Please don't misunderstand, I am NOT talking about a natural battle, but a spiritual one. Remember that we don't fight against flesh and blood, and the weapons that we use are not natural weapons like guns or knives. Our weapons are spiritual in nature- prayer, fasting, God's word, praise, our confession.) So the decision is up to you-- sit back and do nothing and let the enemy keep defeating you, or engage in the battle and become victorious.

Have a great day. You will never win the battle if you sit back and do nothing. You have to engage the enemy.

For further reading:
1 Samuel 17
2 Corinthians 10:4
Ephesians 6:11-20

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Coffee Break is a morning devotional written by Lorraine Ezell
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