I had a revelation the other day. I was listening to a song by Tamela Mann called "Lay It On the Alter." A line in the song says "Tell the enemy everything that he stole he can keep." I was pleasantly intrigued by this statement because it is not what I am used to hearing from fellow Christians. Most of the time you here people talking about taking back what the devil stole. Shout out to my man Tye Tribbett who has a song on his Victory album called "I Want It All Back" in which the very theme is taking back what the devil stole. He shouts out things like "what about the peace he took" and "what about the joy he took", and the choir responds by saying "I want that back!" I have jammed to this song many times and as recent as a couple of weeks ago after "giving up" my peace for frustration over a financial issue. Notice I said "giving up". I believe many if not all things in our lives we "give up" to the devil instead of it being stolen. This is not to bash Tye; I still love his music, and that song is still very inspirational. I'm just realizing now that we say things often without full understanding. After hearing the line from Tamela Mann's song, I began to analyze why we would not want stuff back from the enemy (devil). The Bible says in several passages that things are NEW. Isaiah 43:19 says
"See, I am doing a new thing!" And verse 18 tells us to "forget the former things; do not dwell on the past." 2 Corinthians 5:17 speaks of a "new creation" and "the old is gone!" Finally, Philippians 3:13-14 says to "forget what is behind, strain ahead, and press toward a higher calling." I am stating these scriptures to say that we should be looking for our Heavenly Father to renew those things that the enemy (devil) stole. I don't want the peace he stole; I want a new and refreshing peace. I don't want the joy he stole; I want new joy. I don't want the old relationship he stole; I want a restored relationship. Remember, I said we often give these things away. I guess the bottom line is the enemy only has as much power over us as we give him. Sure, he may manage to get some things from us during the fight, but our God is ALL things and has ALL things so we can be restored, refreshed, and renewed.
