From the moment we take our first breath until the moment we take our last, we’re engaged in a spiritual battle for our souls. Scripture tells us that God will give us all the strength we need to take a stand against the enemy, but we have to be willing to do just that — stand up and fight. And one of the best ways we can ready ourselves to take a stand in the big things is to take a stand in seemingly small things along the way.

There’s no way to sugarcoat the truth: we live in a dangerous world. Not only do we face physical struggles constantly — we face spiritual battles every day. The Bible tells us to hide ourselves in God and He’ll cover us. He’s faithful to protect us from the attacks of the enemy when we call on His name.

The evil we read about in the Bible is still around today. The danger is, our culture tries to normalize it, or to pass it off as something other than what it is. It’s our job to call out evil as evil and to recognize that we’re in a constant spiritual battle — and then do our best to lead the people around us to the only One who can defeat the enemy.

Sometimes fighting a battle looks like picking up a sword. But other times, it simply looks like standing up against the enemy. We face a spiritual battle each and every day, and we’ve got to put on our spiritual armor and take a stand. Prayer is a powerful weapon: it keeps our focus on the Lord and what He’s doing in and around us, even as we’re fighting on the battlefield.

God often orchestrates the battles we face in such a way that we can’t possibly win without His help. Why? Because it’s in and through these battles that He gets the glory. Scripture tells us that we’re to march on the gates of hell to pull people out if we need to — but we can’t do that without Him.

If we ever find ourselves asking the question, “What is God’s way?” we only need to look at what the enemy is telling us, because it will always be the opposite of what the Lord has designed for us. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we’re in a spiritual battle every single day. We face constant attacks as Satan attempts to steal, kill, and destroy God’s plan for our lives — and the only way to fight is to arm ourselves with Scripture and prayer.

When trouble and temptation come our direction, and the only way we see out is through consequences that we know will bring us pain, God provides us with an escape route and a way back to Him. Drawing near to the Lord, surrounding ourselves with other Christians who will keep us accountable, and remembering that God’s mercy is eternal are all weapons in which we can find strength for the battle against the enemy.

There’s a very real spiritual world that exists beyond the world we can see, and its forces are continually at war even as you and I go about our day-to-day lives. The only way we can overcome the devil and his attacks is by the power of God. He’s given us His Spirit and His Word to equip us for battle; it’s our job to put on His armor for protection and use His weapons to fight back.

The evil we read about in the Bible is still around today. The danger is, our culture tries to normalize it, or to pass it off as something other than what it is. It’s our job to call out evil as evil and to recognize that we’re in a constant spiritual battle — and then do our best to lead the people around us to the only One who can defeat the enemy.

Did you know that your greatest weapon against hardship and trial is…worship? Most often, the difficult circumstances that we think are our enemy are really just masking a spiritual enemy. The devil seeks to steal, kill, and destroy — but when we worship God, He fights on our behalf, and we don’t have to fight those battles alone.

We tend to treat this life more like an amusement park than a battlefield. But we’re in the midst of a spiritual battle, and the enemy wants to do everything he can to make us lose. We can choose to let hell overtake us and beat us down, or we can pick up our weapons, like prayer and worship, and fight to the very end.

The devil never has downtime. He doesn’t take breaks or have an off-season; he’s constantly attacking us with the intention of devouring us. We’re in a 24/7 spiritual battle, and we have to put on the full armor of God for protection so we can fight and win.