Laced With Grace

I’ve been thinking about spiritual warfare a lot lately.  Not only am I preparing a series of talks about it for a ladies seminar in a couple of weeks, but  I’ve been praying often for friends and family that are battling with depression and other damaging emotions.  I want them to be able to stand strong.  I want to engage and win the battles that I face personally. In order to do that I need to be on the offense.

To be on the offense means that I am keenly aware of the times I find myself engaging the enemy.

• When I am taking significant steps of faith for spiritual growth.
• When I’m invading enemy territory by being involved in evangelism or on a mission trip.
• When I’m exposing Him for who He is.
• When I repent and make a clean break with the world, a long held sin pattern or an unholy relationship.
• When God is preparing us individually or corporately for a great work for His glory.

So how do I engage the enemy and win?

“…in addition to all, take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.   And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  Ephesians 6:16, 17 (NASB)

Be on the offense by taking up your shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.  The shield of faith is the absolute confidence in His promises, His power and His program for our lives.  It’s purpose is to quench all the fiery darts/missiles of the evil one….and they WILL come.

We’re all bombarded by those fiery darts and just don’t realize that’s what’s going on. The evil one will use schemes, temptations, lies, deceptions, and attacks aimed at us, to shift our focus to something or someone other than God.  They’re often rooted in lies about God’s identity or our new identity in Christ.

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. “1 John 2:15,16

How do I identify the fiery missiles?

• Maybe you’ve had blasphemous thoughts (curse words) and you never normally have those thoughts.
• Having hateful thoughts towards someone.
• Doubts.
• Having a burning desire to sin.
• Overwhelming times of depression and you don’t want to come out.

Those missiles of doubt, deception and depression must be dealt with immediately through handling the Word of God accurately.

Action Steps

Write the following 3 questions and verses on 3×5 cards. Keep them with you and claim those verses when you go through a “frontal assault.”  Immediately respond by trusting in the truth of God’s Word

• Am I trusting in God’s character? God has my best in mind.  He is good!  Psalm 84:11, Romans 8:32
• Am I trusting in God’s promises and Word? He will accomplish what concerns me.  Numbers 23:19; 2 Peter 1:2-4
• Am I trusting in God’s program and timing? His ways are not always easiest, but they are always the best!  Jeremiah 29:11, Isaiah 55:8-13

Lord, help me to stand strong against the attacks of the enemy.  Help me to refuse his attack on Your grace by trusting in Your character.  I need to be strong and faithful at reading Your word and understanding your promises and your program and plans for me.  I want to know Your Word so well that the Truth will always win in my life over the deceiver. That I will apply what I know to be true so the accuser is without a case. I want to understand your gospel so well that I will never doubt Your promise of salvation.  And when the fiery darts of temptation, lies and deception bombard me, Lord may I have absolute confidence in You, Your promises, power and timing in my life.

Your humbly grateful daughter,

Recently I gave each of my children a bag of yellow squeaky ducks. I prayed about this decision and God led me to the yellow ducks, saying the yellow ducks are what is best for them. The next day I met up with my girlfriend and I found she gave her kids a bag of orange lizards. “Why didn’t you give them the yellow ducks,” I asked, “I believe God wanted all of us Christians to have yellow ducks. I studied God’s word, fasted, and prayed and God said yellow ducks was his will.” My friend looked at me and said, “I think the orange lizards suite our needs perfectly and God has blessed us with the orange lizards. I don’t believe God wanted everyone to just have yellow ducks” “Okay,” I replied, “I am not one to tell you how to live your life, but be sure to pray that you are not living in disobedience to God by choosing orange lizards.”

Obliviously this is a silly story, but what is sad is that we do this far too often to fellow believers.

We search scripture to find out who we should marry, what job the Lord would like us to have, what university our graduates should attend, whether we should bottle feed or nurse, or home school, charter school, or send them to public school. No matter how hard you search scriptures you will not find a direct answer. Far too often we read the bible looking for passages that show us yellow ducks are God’s will and orange lizards are not. Shane Rosenthal once said in an article Reflection Upon Scripture, “We have all been influenced more than we care to admit, by our own reflections bouncing off the pages of sacred Scripture.”  Far to often Christians destroy relationships with other believers because they believe their way is best, when in reality both are God’s will.

Often times believers fall in the trap of believing if the Holy Spirit directed their path one way, then all other Christians should be following suite or they are in disobedience to God’s word. We as Christians don’t say that out loud (we are far to polite for the direct approach). Instead we say things like “Well you need to really pray about your decision”, “I would never be the one to tell you what to do, but…” , or they make you feel inferior for choosing orange lizards instead of yellow duckies.

If you are sitting in a group with varying opinions each person is going to have their own ideas of how things should be. Each one will see the situation the way their sinful self will want to see it. Each person trusts in the way they think, the way they came to their conclusions and they believe others need to come to an agreement with their opinion. As Christians we take it one step further by saying we weighed our opinions according to God’s word and the Holy Spirit told us what was the right decision. But often times what happens is that we will search scripture and find individual passages that agree with our position.

This is not how God wanted you to study scripture. Scripture should be read as a whole so we don’t fall in the trap of trusting in our own mind. In the book of Proverbs, a man who believes in his own mind is called a fool. Paul warns us about false teachers who use, “smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naïve.” (Romans 16:18) Instead of living our “Best Life Now” or only focusing on our “Power Thoughts” we need to read God’s word and become familiar with truth.

God is not about what job you will have, what school you or your children will attend, or who you will marry. Yes God has things in the bible to guide you and protect you in your decisions–He calls us to come to him for everything.  God offers us protection because he sees the big picture, but ULTIMATELY He is there for you to seek Him out and develop a closer relationship with him. He is there so you will bear witness of HIM where ever you are.

As much as I want specific answers to my questions, God’s main desire is for me to grow closer to Him and to share Him with others around me. In order for us to be the salt in this world some will be led to other countries, some will be led to attend different schools, some will be led to teach/preach, some Mom’s will nurse their kids, others will bottle feed, some will send kids to public schools, charter schools, homeschooling, some will chose to give their kids orange lizards instead of yellow duckies–while both living in perfect obedience to God’s will.

Heavenly Father,  Help me to study your scriptures so you will transform me.  You said a man who trusts in his own thoughts is a fool,  let me be a reflection of Your thoughts instead.  Help me to be able to recognize the truth and not be deceived by smooth talk from other Christians who are only trying to promote their own opinions.  Don’t let me become tangled with quarrels that don’t matter in the long run, instead help me to focus on bearing witness for you and leading others to You.  amen

¹³ For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

¹⁷ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.  Psalm 139:13-18 (NKJV)

The other evening I was scanning the channels on our TV to see if there was anything interesting to watch.   I suddenly stopped scanning when a show caught my eye.  I heard part of a conversation of two young ladies.  One of the young ladies told the other that for her birthday she was going to buy her breast implants because – “ It will make her feel better about herself and bring her more confidence.”   The other girl squealed in total excitement, “My life will be so much better!”

How sad is that?  To think that changing one’s appearance in hope that it will make one feel better as well as her life will be much better!   It’s so disturbing to think that thousands of young ladies might have heard this conversation and wonder if they changed something about themselves that it will make their life better.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong about changing your appearance especially if one is overweight and needs to lose a few pounds or more.  We all know that being overweight is hard on our bodies and not healthy.   What disturbed me was that they believe changing oneself on the outside would make life better for them.  I don’t fault these young ladies at all – let’s face it – we see these messages all the time on TV, movies, magazines etc….   If you are skinny enough, cute enough, tall enough, and rich enough, etc… you will be popular and successful in life.  They do not understand that one can change everything external about them but if they do not make the right changes within themselves it will all be totally superficial!

How heartrending that they do not realize that God made them and loves them just the way He created them.  Too many people think that if they change the outside it is what they need when actually it’s the inside – their heart – that needs to be changed – to be right with the Lord!

³ Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
there is no help for you there.
⁴ When they breathe their last, they return to the earth,
and all their plans die with them.
⁵ But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.   Psalm 146:3-5 (NLT)

Dear Lord may we as mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts and friends teach our young girls the meaning of true beauty and true happiness.  May we set an example for all young ladies we come in contact with each day.  May we not be so obsessed about our “outside” shell that we too send the wrong message to our young ladies.  May we be examples of true beauty – life in Christ.  In Jesus precious name, amen.