HEARTLIGHT(R) Magazine: Two Minute Meditations: Resident Evil


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Oh, well, it has to be done. I’ll just do it.”

“Wow, does that stuff smell bad in the summer, or what?” I gagged at the can when I opened it to throw in more garbage.

“Mmmm, what’s that?” I bent down to see.

“Oh, it’s just the wrapper off a video game.”

Resident Evil is the name the wrapper displayed. I ignored the wrapper at first, simply wanting to shove the image of its title from my thoughts. But it was in my grass to stay, so on my second pass, I picked it up and put it in my satchel as I headed into the office. Even though I could no longer see this title wrapper, I couldn’t get its title out of my mind.

About half way in to work, the Holy Spirit helped me answer the foul nagging echo of the wrapper with a reminder from his Scriptures:

“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." (Heb. 12:1-3)

Either my life is under the reign of God, or it is under the dominion of the evil one.

The Bible operates under a very powerful assertion: either my life is under the reign of God and his will or it is under the dominion of the evil one. When we become a Christian, we are transferred from the dominion of darkness into God’s Kingdom (Col. 1:13). Before we received this grace, we were held in bondage by the prince of darkness (Eph. 2:1-3). Even now, our struggle is with heavenly spiritual powers of evil (Eph. 6:10-12).

Yes, there is Resident Evil! But its power does not have to claim us or maim us. The Holy Spirit reminds us of two keys, shared again and again through out the New Testament. First, we must rid our lives of sin. Get rid of and stay away from the ways Satan attaches himself to our lifestyles by “laying aside the sin that so easily entangles.” Second, it’s not enough to purge and clean, we must fill our lives with something positive. We need to fix our hearts and eyes on Jesus and depend upon him to offer perfect salvation. We need to wear out our Bibles in the 4 Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. You see, Jesus is not just our hero and our Savior, he is our goal and model (Col. 1:28-29; Gal. 4:19).

As we do these two key things in our battle against the Resident Evil, we also need to trust the Spirit when he says: “My dear children, you belong to God and have defeated them; because God’s Spirit, who is in you, is greater than the devil, who is in the world” (1 John 4:4, NCV). Let’s let him help us keep the evil from being resident in our lives.