Do You Have a Winning Strategy?

This week two of the Senate’s leading foreign policy experts have publicly expressed doubts about the U.S./NATO strategy to win the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. I'm just surprised it has taken so long for someone to admit it. As I’ve said before (See “A House Divided,” March 1, 2010) the war in Afghanistan is more about changing thousands of years of culture than defeating the Taliban and al Qaeda. Without considering those influences, we do not have a winning strategy.

As born-again disciples of Christ, it is incumbent upon each of us to have a winning strategy if we are win the war against the world, our flesh, and Satan. But too many seem oblivious to the dangers around them. Not considering the world's influences, nor how their flesh responds to those influences (Gal. 5:17-21). And even fewer are aware of Satan’s strategies to blind them to these influences (2 Cor. 4:4). And not only that, they are woefully ignorant of the weapons available to them both defensively and offensively (Ephesians 6:11). The result: living in a culture of defeat.

Paul’s strategy for victory was thus stated (Ephesians 4:22-24): you must put off the ‘old self’ before you can put on the ‘new self.’ Just as the NATO alliance will never win the war in Afghanistan without a radical change of beliefs, neither will we. We must have a winning strategy “so that Satan will not outsmart us... [and we must be] familiar with his evil schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11 NLT).