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.

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