Just some thoughts on life as a believer

Dan McCollum said “the life of a Christian isn’t hard, it’s impossible”. Now, if you’re not part of our culture this may seem a little esoteric, so someone might add “the life of a Christian is impossible without our faith in God and Jesus because we are no longer citizens of this world”, or maybe something more concise but I feel my bit sums it up pretty well. The closer you get to God and the purpose He has for you, the more the enemy will try to throw lies and deception at you to rob you of your inheritance that God has ordained for you ephisians 1:11). Problem for old Lucy( or Luci) is that you can’t steal an inheritance because it’s not something we’ve earned and is imperishable in Heaven (1 Peter 1:4). The enemy can’t rob Heaven. I’m reminded of a line from the video game “Kingdom Hearts” that said “the closer you get to the light the greater your shadow becomes”. The closer you get to the light of God the greater your shadow becomes and the enemy wants to hide in that shadow and throw sucker punches at you because your victory has already been won and he cannot engage in conventional warfare because the battle belongs to the Lord. Yes the life of a Christian may seem(keyword) to grow more and more difficult with each passing breakthrough. You may face persecution, slander, loss of friends, and other unfortunate happenstances, but you will gain salvation, eternal life, grace, the Holy Spirit, strength through God, abounding love, destruction of fear, and so much more. I’d say that equation is unbalanced in favor of God so take your pick of what you’d rather walk in.

Advertisement

Why The Good News is Better Than T.V. News

If you watch any news station for more than 5 minutes, I’m sure you’ll notice that the bad news far outweighs the good. America is addicted to bad news. Every time you go to the grocery store or to the gas station on the corner you see the tabloid magazines advertising who is cheating on who and which celebrity packed on a few too many pounds.

Why is this? Is it because so many people’s lives are boring and so lackluster they try to escape the monotonous groove of their lives? Well, maybe that is part of it, but I think it goes deeper than this.

God said in His word “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV)

Many, many, many believers know these verses, or at least the first of those. They hold it true because it is God’s promise to prosper us and help, and that He would never do anything bad to us and that anything wrong that does come into our lives is not Him. It is His promise to take care of us, that our lives aren’t just some random cosmic mistake, that everything that has come to pass and will come to pass is not just some entropic phenomenon. Our lives are guided, and He has promised to to be that light in the dark we only have to acknowledge.

But as we may know, something wants to keep us from that knowledge. The enemy is so intent on filling our heads with bad news and lies that nothing is safe from the filth he puts forth. He figures the more dirt and gunk he piles into us, the less room there will be for the goodness God has PROMISED us. But his theory has a fatal flaw: it is completely unfounded.

Bad news generates fear and worry. It is darkness that tries to swallow up every bit of happiness and hope it can. But there are two more very good things God promised us. The first is that “…perfect love casts out fear…” (1st John 4:18 annotated) This good in part because we know that God has perfect love for us. He gave His only begotten son Jesus to die and purify us so we could live with Him (John 3:16) and Him in us (Galatians 2:20) but also that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). God Himself casts out fear personally.  GREAT NEWS!

The second thing God promised us is that we will never be alone. He will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8, Hebrews 13:5). This is great news because no matter how alone you feel, how lonely you get, or how miserable you think life has gotten, God is always there, sometimes people just forgot to look. Sometimes people forget that God’s word is also His promise, and that the Bible is a book full of promises. But I digress.

The enemy loves all this bad news so much because it makes us feel like God isn’t here anymore. I believe this is an intentional attack on people yes, but specifically on believers. It is an attack to try and make us forget God’s promise to be there and to forget that He even said it. His flawed theory is that is we believe that God isn’t with us anymore then we won’t remember or call on His promises and leave Him behind. But even though people sometimes leave God behind, He will never do the same to us. He promised, remember?

So the next time you see a news channel spewing forth a bunch of filth, turn it off. Talk to your family or friends about your day, read a book, or just meditate. Try even reading your bible(if you feel led to). Just remember that joy comes in the morning, but sometimes it takes a while for the morning to get here. Push for the breakthrough and remember God’s promises.

Be blessed

Preview of things to come

Lately, God has put me in a lot a spiritual warfare. That’s the funny thing about God; sometimes He gives you the exact opposite of what you want because what you need contradicts your desires. The purpose of warfare is to defeat the enemy and take what is rightfully ours or to claim something that should belong to us. Having said that, the warfare God had allowed me to go through has yielded some amazing breakthrough and some clarification on some revelation from the past. Stay tuned as we explore these and get a bigger picture of what God wants for us. Be blessed.