Are we doing this right???

My 8 year old niece is a video game wizard. You can place her in front of a Wii, PlayStation, or Xbox, and without even glancing at the instructions she will master any game out there. This is amazing to me, because I grew up in a world where there was only a joystick and a single button. Although I could take the time to learn how to play the new systems, there are really too many buttons for me to really enjoy the fun.

Anyway, for Christmas, my niece received one of those video game consoles that has over 100 built in games. This machine was filled with things like Donkey Kong Junior, Centipede, Galaga and Mario to name a few. I watched as she tried to figure out the games and how she marveled that her Dad and I knew the secrets of how to navigate these games.

She was used to playing by a certain set of rules and functionality that just didn’t fit into the way these games were built. Although the controller that came with this game looked like the PlayStation controller, the games behaved like the single joystick/single button games.

This made me think about Christianity. A lot of times, we try to handle situations, struggles and problems, but we’re using the wrong controller. We have the internet, so answers are always at our fingers – and there are a million opinions to be found to help with almost any situation. We have doctors that prescribe drugs for almost any problem that can be found. We have self-help books that are designed to help us manage our lives.

The problem is that we are in a spiritual battle. And  although “We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s might weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down strongholds of human reasoning to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.” 2 Cor 10:3-4 New Living Translation.

Sometimes, as Christians, we forget that “we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world,  and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12 New Living Translation.

My question for the day is – are you approaching life with the right perspective to handle the struggles that we face on a regular basis, or are you still using the same rules for a system that doesn’t apply to spiritual matters?