Fiery Arrows


 

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16

 
It seems that there are people who in order to prove their point, to demonstrate the validity of their claims find attacking the faith of their adversary the best way to go. Fair enough if the faith of the adversary can be called into question. We all know plenty of nominal Christians who cherry pick the Gospel for their own ends. I am not one of those and yet this isn’t the first time my loyalty to my Father has been questioned. My faith is not hidden. There is no bowl over my light. (Matthew 5:15) Having ignored this type of attack before I was a little taken back at my own reaction the other day when it happened again. The circumstances surrounding the remarks are entirely too ludicrous to explain. Suffice to say that someone didn’t like a choice I made and turned a molehill into Everest. My dear husband and sweet daughter advised me to consider the source. True enough but that didn’t take the sting out of the situation, which I initially saw as the source of my hurt and anger. It was a day later while praying that I realized that the idiocy of the whole ordeal was not my problem. What bothered me was having my faith belittled. Knowing that my negative reaction would only separate me from my Abba, I took my frustration to Him in prayer.

          I am currently living in a season of challenge and giving. Everywhere I turn, literally everywhere, someone wants something from me. That is fine with me, no, it’s great, as it is my prayer every single morning to serve God by serving others and to be a blessing to at least one person I encounter. My days start with prayer, Scripture, counting my blessings and listening for God’s guidance. Aren’t I just precious? NO! It isn’t any innate goodness that drives me. It is love, pure and simple. It is the love I have for my Abba, for Jesus my Savior and for the Holy Spirit but that exists only because God loved me first. (1 John 4:19) The relationship that I have with Jesus Christ is first and foremost in my life. I am far from perfect, still fully capable of making mistakes, sinning and certainly of offending the people around me but that is not due to a lack of faith or as it was referred to “Christianity.” That is because I am human.

          As I sat and prayed, prayed to let the hurt go, to forgive the offender (by the way far beyond the 70 times 7, Matthew 18:21-22), my precious Abba spoke to my heart. First by showing me that it is because I do hold Him so dear I am vulnerable to that type of attack. Then by giving me an earthly example. I dearly love my husband. We have a really nice marriage, loving, happy, safe and full of respect for each other. If anyone questioned that I would be truly offended and that relationship cannot hold a candle to what I feel for my Savior, my King. Finally God revealed to me that this is a Joseph and his brothers situation (Genesis chapters 37, 39-45) because what my offenders meant for harm has only served to strengthen and affirm my faith. Wow! That makes it easier to forgive, to move on and to continue to love and serve with a faithful heart.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not Really god, where are you?

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning to noon.”Baal answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said, “Surely he is a god! Perhaps his is deep in thought, or busy or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 1 Kings 18:26b-27 Those who know me would be quick to tell you that I am a bit sarcastic. It’s a quality that I have passed on to my children and even some of my grandchildren. Some days I feel a little guilty. Is that really a quality that God wants to see in me? Certainly that cannot be my go to attitude but there are times that it comes in quite nicely. This morning, reading a totally unrelated verse, I was reminded of this account in the first book of Kings. (It begins at verse 16 and continues to the end of the chapter. I highly recommend reading it if you haven’t and it if you have reread it. It’s great!) In this p
Read more

My Offering

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also love you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2 Standing in my kitchen, I was praying that what I was putting together for a friend would convey what I want her to know, that I so deeply appreciate her. As my mind spun around what can I add? What would she really like? Is this enough? I had to laugh. That is so often my prayer, “Lord, I don’t have anything to give. I don’t give enough. What can I possibly do?” and on, and on and…. Well, you get it, I’m sure. May I just say, GOD IS GOOD! (Yes, I know the caps mean I’m shouting. Yes, I am shouting!) While I was preparing my “gift” I was thinking about how often I feel that I don’t do enough, for friends, for family, for my hubby and certainly for God. I had music playing, another pretty typical occurrence. The Third Day song, “Offering” started to play and I started singing along.
Read more

Selective Sight

You shall not bow down to them; for I, the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing love to the a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:5-6 A precious little one that I know has a glass eye. We’ll call him Jack. Beyond the lack of his eye, Jack has a lot of other challenges. His brain hasn’t caught up with his chronology and it most likely never will. My expectation is that Jack will always need someone close by to help him through life. He’s a needy kid who is also a little bit on the naughty side. It was his uniquely naughty nature that taught me a spiritual lesson. You see, little Jack can pop out that glass eye and he does. The other day while I was with him another child in the room was yelling, “Eye, eye, eye.” Not having experienced Jack’s particular talent I heard it is “I, I, I”. Just as I was about to ask her to please b
Read more