As a pastor, I get involved in a lot of conversations that revolve around personal failure and weakness.

As a pastor, I get involved in a lot of conversations that revolve around personal failure and weakness. No one likes to admit they struggle. The fact remains, however, that we all do. The Bible has made that much clear (Romans 3:23). The question is not, "Will we battle sin?" Rather, the question is, "How will we battle it?"

The fast track to failure in your battle against the "old self" is to make it your battle. Revivalist and theologian Henry Drummond once wrote, "Sin is a power in our life: Let us fairly understand that it can only be met by another power."

It makes me think of the scene in the Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. There is this scene where Jones is chasing after the heroine who has been taken captive by some of the henchmen. As he runs through the crowded marketplace looking for her, he is confronted by a very large Egyptian with a bad attitude and an even badder sword. Jones stops dead in his tracks and watches as the warrior spins his blades with lightning fast reactions, showing his skills to his stunned foe. After Jones has watched for a few seconds and realized that he has seen enough, he pulls his pistol and shoots down the man as if to say, "Right fight, wrong weapon."

Do you ever feel that way? Day-after-day you step from your bed and begin your latest battle with addiction, depression, discouragement, anger or bitterness. You know your enemy is real and when the pressure is hardest, you whip out your weapons and begin to spin them with all your might, putting on your best display of fury only to have the enemy "shoot you down". There you find yourself again...right fight, wrong weapon. The only way to battle the enemy and his power is to stand again him in God's power. Take this to heart. Everyone battles this common enemy. The only survivors are the ones who learn to submit themselves to Christ's power in their lives.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12 NIV