The negative and positive of warfare

When you are caught in a temptation, it is essential to know that there is a positive as well as a negative strategy for victory. By "temptation" I mean any of the common pits we fall into in the course of an average day---the sudden death grip of desire to covet, manipulate, fear, deceive, retaliate, etc.

The "negative" (if I may put it that way) order of business is to say "No!" to the demonic suggestion: "No, I will not write that letter to him that every fiber of my flesh is dying to write. Though I have couched the trap in prettiness, I recognize it as a Trojan horse packed with explosives. I can see that it does not proceed from faith in God's love but from unbelief. The Evil One would have me in bondage to unscriptural theories about where my personal happiness lies."

If you have gotten this far in your resistance, you have perhaps gone farther than most people ever get. (I hope that's not true. I am merely describing myself in the previous paragraph and assuming that I am not so unusual.) Nevertheless, my experience is that the "No" is not enough and will not bring you the distance.

I have discovered (no one told me this in a sermon, which is baffling) that with some magnitudes of temptation, nothing will avail but to implement a positive strategy hand in hand with the negative. Specifically, I must commence earnestly thanking God and praising Him for everything I can think of---out loud if it's a severe case. (I find that effective faith is very gregarious.) I do not know why this "works" except that God Himself says to do it:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God" (Philippians 4:6).

In the act of thanking God I start turning a mighty ship by the rudder of prayer. As the list of vocalized blessings grows in my mouth, I am realigning my mind with truth, breaking out of the tunnel vision I had a few moments ago that was a living tomb. The truth always sets us free because the biggest truths are that God loves us and will not allow any suffering into our lives that is not for our ultimate benefit. To come to this place of understanding is to arrive at the brink where the willful putting to death of strong desire is possible.

I am going to speculate that there are reasons for God's commands that are only known in the heavenlies, and that ours is not to understand but to obey. For example, if God wants us to keep repeating the same prayers over and over (Luke 18), then I'm sure He knows why that's important. If God says that the pathway to receiving help and to attaining our requests is through thanksgiving, He's the Potter and I'm the clay.

God tells the barren woman in Isaiah 54 to sing. This would be a cruel command if it were not that singing turned out to be her deliverance. Who knows what provisions of heaven are released by the praises and thanks we release audibly? Are we such materialists after all that we won't do anything the Bible says to do unless we understand it? Do we say, like C.S. Lewis' Dwarves, "What my net can't catch ain't fish"?

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