My pen was poised and ready to go. To my left was Halley’s Bible Handbook, and to my right was Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. I sat on my couch with a closed Bible on my lap, surrounded by all the tools I needed to prepare a great sermon. Unfortunately it was already Friday night and I was preaching on Sunday—and I was starting from scratch. It wasn’t that I was swamped at work; there was plenty of time during my week to prepare for the sermon, but every time I went near my Bible I felt tired, unmotivated, and slightly depressed, so I carried on with my other duties at the church which had a quick return and an obvious purpose. Sermon preparation, on the other hand, was long, involved, and always took me about 20 places before I landed on one great idea.
Back on the couch I was getting the distinct feeling that something outside of my control was pushing in on me. I knew that, while homilies can become a rote discipline for the pastor, they are essential sustenance for the congregation. If this sermon did not get done, it was not I who would suffer, but the parishioners. I realized that the resistance I felt towards opening the scriptures was spiritual warfare, and the good intentions I had for my sermon in the form of “I’ll get to it later” was really just a distraction from doing the work I was called to do. Saying a prayer, I looked with intention to my Bible and mentally got prepared to read. The attack was over, and the battle could now begin.
To go deeper, see our recommended resources on spiritual warfare.
-Cristina Richie director of adult spiritual formation and church school at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Marblehead, Massachusetts.
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