The Sunflower Battle

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled The Sunflower Battle, was written by Dave Brannon. The deer in our neighborhood and I have two different opinions about sunflowers. When I plant sunflowers each spring, I'm looking forward to the beauty of their blooms. My deer friends, however, don't care about the finished product. They simply want to chew the stems and leaves until there's nothing left. It's an annual summertime battle as I try to see the sunflowers to maturity before my four hooved neighbors devour them.

Sometimes I win, sometimes they win. When we think about our lives as believers in Jesus, it's easy to see a similar battle being waged between us and our enemy, Satan. Our goal is continual growth, leading to spiritual maturity that helps our lives stand out for God's honor.

The devil wants to devour our faith and keep us from growing. But Colossians chapter 2 assures us that Jesus has dominion over every power and can bring us to fullness, which means he makes us complete. Christ's victory on the cross allows us to stand out in the world like those beautiful sunflowers.

When Jesus nailed the record of the charges against us, the penalty for our sins, to the cross, he destroyed the powers that controlled us. We became rooted and built up and made alive with Christ. In him, we have the power to resist the enemy's spiritual attacks and to flourish in Jesus, displaying a life of true beauty.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Colossians chapter 2 verses 6 through 13. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.

He is the head over every power and authority. In him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. Let's pray. Dear God, make our lives beautiful for you and your glory. Help us to resist the enemy through your power because we just simply can't do it on our own. Thank you for Jesus' death and resurrection, our only source of hope, power, and courage. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Stephen, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.