Not against flesh and blood

Recently I was listening to a sermon from Ben Courson called, "Penguins, Cacti and Fickle Crowds." (from his podcast: 10/17 & 10/24/15.) He pointed to some study he read regarding human behavior.

25% of people you know don't like you at all
25% of people you know say they don't like you, but could be persuaded to change their mind
25% of people you know say they DO like you, but could be persuaded to change their mind
25% of people you know genuinely like you and would stand by you no matter what

(Then he jokingly said that last 25% is just our mothers...)

If only 25% of people we are in relationship with genuinely like us and will stand by us, that means we may occasionally encounter conflict with the other 75% of the people we know.  (Ya think?)  That is a crazy statistic. And I can't remember where exactly he quoted it from, so please take it with a grain of salt...but his point was this: "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood..."  We are really in a battle with powers of darkness and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Not with our fellow man.

That got me to thinking, of course.  And I was debating it out with a friend (I think one of the 25% that likes me and would stand by me, but you never know, haha!)  Sometimes we do have to stand up man-to-man and fight with another person.  Armed conflict.  God sanctioned war in the Bible.  But if we are in tune with God's will, achieved by much prayer, then we'll know for certain when the time to stand up is really here.

Spiritual Warfare - Are you ready for Battle?

I think the time is now.  Evil is becoming more and more apparent.  I just want to be diligent to fight against evil with truth.  To fight complacency with action.  I don't want to be fickle or luke warm.  I think this requires much faith.  Especially when you are prone to be a people-pleaser like I am.  And when we feel low because of our circumstances, we need to remember there is a battle for our souls going on that we can't even see.  But God is on our side.  Jesus is fighting for us.  We can help Him out by trusting in Him, or we can make it harder by listening to the lies of the Devil.  It is really our choice.  Gotta love that "Free Will" thing.

Please forgive my random postings today.  My mind is wandering all over the place.  Not doing accounting or schoolwork, that's for sure.