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For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12
Reflect
Yesterday, you read about how Jim Elliot and four others traveled to Ecuador to be missionaries to the Huaorani tribe and ended up giving their lives in the process. It’s a tragic, but inspiring, story. But what makes the tale amazing is what happened next.
Two-and-a-half years after the men were murdered along a river in Ecuador, Nate Saint’s sister, Rachel, and Jim Elliot’s wife, Elisabeth, began to evangelize the very people who had committed the murders. They made enough progress that eight months later, the ladies – along with Elisabeth’s three-year-old daughter, Valerie – moved into a Huaorani settlement to continue their work. In later years Nate Saint’s son, Steve, would spend his summers with the Huaoranis and was even adopted as a tribal son by Mincaye – the same man who had murdered Steve’s father.
It’s hard for me to imagine not only ministering to someone who had murdered my brother, or my spouse, or my father. But these people not only ministered – they became part of the people who did these terrible things and actually became more like family. They showed true Christlike love in the face of unbelievable tragedy, and because of it, hundreds of Huaorani people found salvation in Christ. In later years there was some criticism about the erosion of the Huaorani culture, and some of that may be valid. But the fact remains that the Saints and Elliots did what seemed unimaginable. They carried the Gospel to a hostile people and brought the Lord’s light where there had only been darkness.
Had they viewed the Huaorani people as the enemy, this never would have happened. But Rachel Saint and Elisabeth Elliot realized a very important truth – that our true enemy is spiritual and not physical. The Huaorani people were steeped in spiritual darkness and death, and they needed Jesus just as much as you and I do. But where we live in a culture where the Gospel is at least visible in various ways, there was no one to carry the love of God to the Huaorani if Rachel and Elisabeth had not risen above their grief and instead responded in love.
You may be faced with a situation where it seems that people wish you harm or are willing to hurt you to get ahead. We so often get caught up in battling against people instead of remembering that they aren’t our enemies and that they need Jesus just like we do. Today, if someone presents you with difficulties and struggles, remind yourself that our battle is not against flesh and blood, and commit yourself to fighting a truly good fight in the power of the Lord against the spiritual forces that oppose us.
Reflection copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
