Fighting the Battle

1 Peter 2:11

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

This month, I’m taking a look at war. There are so many different kinds of war. Overcoming conflict of any kind is a battle. Losing weight is a battle. When you announce your desire to lose weight, enemies show up to defeat you. You have to battle the urge to shove three servings of a decadent chocolate cake into your mouth. If you don’t use effective weapons, you’ll be overwhelmed by the enemy.

If you live among people who sin (that would be every one of us) and if you want to live in righteousness, then you have a battle on your hands. It’s a spiritual battle, so you have to go to God for your weapons. What weapons do you use in that kind of warfare?

The Word of God is a powerful weapon. It is a sword (Eph 6:17). It is living and active (Heb 4:12). And it is in you – if you read it and believe it and eat it up as if it were the only food around. You must go to God because he knows what is in you and can teach you how to use it (Psalm 32:8).

The battle against sin is not for you to fight alone. In any war, the soldiers must stay in constant communication with their commanding officer. Remember, no success is accidental. Nobody has ever won a war without a fight. And no fight has been effective without both knowledge and passion. Either one by itself is not enough.

KNOWLEDGE
For success in the battle against sin, you must know the enemy. The enemy is sometimes pleasant, otherwise sin would not be tempting. The enemy is sometimes intimidating and sometimes provocative and persuasive.

But you must also know your Commander-In-Chief. Jesus has given us the very same Holy Spirit who was leading him when he fought his battles on the dirt of this planet. God’s Spirit (John 14:26) reminds us of scripture we’ve read which tells us which direction to aim our weapons. We get important information by listening intently in prayer during our battles.

PASSION
Just knowing what to do will not win the battle. You must put effort into the fight. Your confidence in the method of success must match your determination to see the battle through to the end.

You must have a Happy-Ever-After mentality. You must not give up when it looks like you’ve lost. I watched one of the Narnia movies and didn’t turn it off when Lucy found that Aslan had died. I kept watching and saw that the battle wasn’t over. Aslan had not lost.

In your efforts to wage war against sin, you must put up sign posts to remind yourself of your successes and your continuing goals. Remember how far you’ve come, and remember that you’re not through fighting yet.

You are a success story in this war as long as you don’t go AWOL. Stay with God and win the victory. You can do it.

A Persistent Mother

1 Samuel 1:26-28
“Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.”

For years, Hannah went to the house of the Lord with her husband and his other wife, and she grieved bitterly because she had no children. Her husband’s other wife provoked her until she sat sobbing and couldn’t eat. But Hannah didn’t give up. In her grief, she continued praying that God would give her a son.

The priest noticed her and, after a few words, told her God would give her what she asked of him. She believed the priest and stopped grieving. When she gave birth to her son, she named him Samuel, which means “Heard by God”, because she had a son as proof that God heard her prayers.

How many of us give up after three prayers? Or after praying for three days? Hannah prayed for years and didn’t give up.

Persistence is a terrific character trait to have, although sometimes we wish we didn’t have to prove that we have that trait in our arsenal.

When your prayers seem to be unanswered, just be patient and persistent. Don’t give up. Think about how many women, like Hannah have waited for the answer to their prayers. You might not have to wait for years like Hannah did, but in your time of waiting, continue improving your relationship with God. There is a certain intimacy that develops when we stick with God, not giving up, not becoming tired of praying. When you allow that intimacy into your prayers, you're not begging God to perform a miracle because it's what you want.

Make your persistence about God’s plan, not about yours. If in your time of waiting, you become impatient, don’t be tempted to give God an ultimatum. Don’t try to bribe him. It doesn’t work. Let your heart be softened toward God, and let him draw you closer, the longer you wait.

Then when you finally do get what you asked for, you know it’s God’s will, and you can enjoy it so much more.

A Bold Leader

Judges 4:8

Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”

This month, I’m focusing on women who have been a positive influence in the lives of others. These women are bold, strong, and brave. They know what they have to do, and they’re not afraid to do it. And they act out of love.

Today, it’s Deborah’s turn.

Deborah helped Barak, the military leader, move the armies of Israel against the Canaanites, who had been oppressing the Israelites for 20 yrs. Judges 4:4 describes her as a prophet, a wife, and a leader of Israel. Talk about a busy schedule!

She’s the only female judge in the Bible that I’m aware of. It took courage for her to accept that role in the first place. Today, a time when most of the leaders are men, a successful woman leader stands out. In her day, Deborah stood out even more. The obvious question is “Why did she have success as a female judge?”

Her success was given to her by God. Not just handed to her, but given on a daily basis as a result of her repeated interaction with God. This is a time-tested ladder to success. It works today just as it did for Deborah.

When we read about Deborah, we learn three important things about her that affected her success as a leader. She was available, obedient, and caring.

She was AVAILABLE. Judges 4:5 tells that she made herself available to the people for her judgment. Verse 6 tells that she spent enough time with God that she could hear God’s words of direction. We often don’t hear God because we don’t spend enough time with him.

She was OBEDIENT to God. Her relationship with God earned her much respect among the people. In Judges 4:8,9 we learn that she understood from Barak’s response that her support would be the key to victory, so she decided to go into battle with Barak. Judges 4:14 tells that she spoke, and the top leaders paid attention. In Judges 5:3, she acknowledges God and doesn’t accept praise for herself when the victory is won.

She was CARING. Judges 5:9 shows us that she cared about the people she led.

When the people obey God through the leadership of one bold woman, everyone gets to celebrate. God rewarded Deborah’s courage by relieving the people of their oppression. Judges 5:31 lets us know that with her help, the Israelites lived in peace for the next forty years.

A Powerful Female Merchant

Acts 16:14

One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God.

This woman, Lydia, had a heart for God. She wasn’t homeless or poor, but rather a merchant. We know she sold cloth to rich people because poor people didn’t buy expensive purple cloth. Lydia had to be bold in order to be successful as a merchant. She heard Paul speak about God’s love, and she welcomed the men into her home.

I think “welcomed” is not what she did. She challenged them to stay at her house. She made the men decide whether she was a believer or not. If they considered her a believer in the Lord, they had to stay with her. If they didn’t, then she might consider them hypocrites. Her tenacity in the invitation was an affirmation of her faith. The men, by staying at her house, confirmed to her that God had not overlooked women.

During that period, it was a common thing for men to be important and women to be overlooked. But Lydia was a seller of purple cloth, and she wasn’t going to allow herself to be overlooked. The men accepted Lydia and showed other women that God’s love is big enough for everyone, even bold female merchants.

How do you and I show people God’s big love?

When a friend asked me to pray for her healing, I saw it as a challenge. I’d prayed for others, but this was a new opportunity for me. I’d never prayed for a pastor’s wife before. Not with her standing there waiting on me to start praying. Was my faith big enough for that?

I remembered that God was the one being challenged, not me. I wasn’t able to heal anyone, but God heals people all the time. My friend’s boldness caused me to confirm to her that God’s love is big enough and powerful enough even through my prayers.

And, yes, she received total healing that day. God is enough.

A Powerful Mom

Matthew 15:26-27

He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

A mother’s persistent love can overcome many obstacles. Matthew 15:21-28 shows the example of a mother who never gave up. Her daughter was suffering terribly, and she knew Jesus was able to heal her. She was basically told – by Jesus, himself – that she wasn’t important enough for him to stop and listen to her.

Did she get offended? No. It took a special “mother’s boldness” for her to continue pressing Jesus for his healing touch for her daughter.

Personally, I think that Jesus knew he was going to heal the woman’s daughter, but let her make a big scene in front of the disciples so he could teach about the woman’s great faith. I think Jesus was paying attention to her, but he had to let the woman wake up The Twelve. She was willing to eat the breadcrumbs when the disciples weren’t eating the bread on their plates.

Sometimes Jesus lets us press into him just a little bit more before he answers our prayers. It may be so we’ll get passionate about what we’re praying about, or it may be so someone else will notice what God does in that situation.

We say we’re Christians, but we often need a little lesson on walking with God. Christians get into a religious rut and stop depending on God at times. It is during those times that God pushes us to wake up and use our faith more than we ever have. We need to be persistent. We need a closer relationship with Him.

God is the fire that warms our hearts. If we don’t stay close to Him, our hearts get cold. I think Jesus uses people like the mother with the sick child to wake us all up and encourage us to get closer. When you and I see a surprising “faith event” like the mother’s persistence, we should check the temperature of our hearts and see if we’re the ones God wanted to challenge.

Clothes That Mean Something

Exodus 28:2-3

Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor. Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest.

Moses was humble enough to listen to God. This is something we should take into consideration when we wonder why we’re not successful in something. Maybe we should listen to God. Moses listened carefully and took notes on specific instructions God gave him about how to worship, where to worship, how to dress, etc.

God told him how to make Aaron’s priestly garments and which ones to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash. Where did they get the supplies to make everything? Exodus 28:1 tells us that Moses received an offering from those whose heart prompted them to give. It wasn’t a tax or a fee. It was freely given.

Exodus 28:29-30

“Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the LORD. Also put the Urim and the Thummim in the breastpiece, so they may be over Aaron’s heart whenever he enters the presence of the LORD. Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the LORD.”

Today we don’t get very specific about what we wear when we enter the presence of God. We want to focus on God and not the clothes. Understandable. But what if we wore something that makes us focus on one of the facets of God’s love.

What if we recited the scriptures related to the armor of God when we got dressed every morning? What if we printed out Ephesians 4:20-25 and taped it to the bathroom mirror so we could read it every time we brushed our teeth?

The garments God gives us to wear today have meaning. We are to put on righteousness and holiness. We are to wear God’s armor and not depend on our own human-designed protective clothing.

What if we listened to God and obeyed him down to our shoe selection? How would that change us?

Clothes That Fit

Ephesians 6:10-11

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

Goliath had shouted insults at Saul’s army for forty days. When David showed up and found out what had been going on, he was infuriated. How dare anyone speak like that about God and his people. When David was given permission to begin his battle with Goliath, it took very little time to successfully complete his mission. The battle was over in no time. The fat lady was clearing her throat when David stepped out onto the battlefield.

He knew the battle wasn’t really against Goliath, but against what Goliath stood for. According to Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

He knew that not one man in Saul’s army would be able to beat Goliath in a flesh against flesh battle, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t win. They had to look to the one who was in charge of the battle for their plan of attack. Not Saul, but God.

David won his battle against Goliath because he was comfortable knowing his armor was God. He’d worn that armor before and knew how it felt. There is freedom and security in a good relationship with God. David was certain he’d be protected.

When God is your armor, you can relax and simply obey. No need to worry about the insults or threats against you. If you are obeying God and wrapped up in him, he is able to clear the path to your victory.

Second-Hand Clothes

1 Samuel 17: 38-39

Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.

Can you say no when someone offers you what works for them?

David was unafraid of the enormous Philistine shouting insults at King Saul’s army. Since he was too little to join his brothers in the army, he visited them with a load of supplies. Hearing the insults from nine-foot-tall Goliath, David wondered why no one had put a stop to it. King Saul found out David was insisting he could kill Goliath and sent for him. After David explained that God had helped him kill a lion and a bear, he persuaded King Saul to let him shut the giant up.

Goliath had come to the battlefield in a full coat of armor weighing 125 pounds. That’s not too much extra weight for a nine-foot warrior. So King Saul tried to put armor on David to protect God’s little warrior. It was a nice thought, but not a good idea. Goliath had a bronze helmet, so David tried on a bronze helmet. He walked around in the rest of it, but it just wasn’t working for him.

With an opponent towering over him, David knew he needed protection much bigger than the armor Saul gave him. He knew he needed God.

David took off Saul’s armor and picked up stones as his weapon of choice. I’m sure his brothers were skeptical of David’s ability to get the stone aimed well enough to hit Goliath in a place that would not be covered in armor and to go fast enough that the blow would kill him.

David decided to “go with what you know”. He’d been with God in his fight against the lion and the bear, and he’d be with God in the fight against Goliath. It wasn’t the stone that killed Goliath. It was the faith in God David valued so highly. It was God’s hand making that stone crush into the skull of the giant. No one expected David to make a dent in the battle against the giant who had kept Saul’s army terrified for forty days. No one, but David.

If David had tried to do battle in the ill-fitting armor, not only would he have lost to Goliath, but the Israelites would have been servants to the Philistines. King Saul was taking a huge risk letting a little guy fight for them.

David knew that God’s armor is always better than Saul’s armor. He was dressed for success.

Our First Garments

Genesis 3:21

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Do you remember the first lie you ever heard? Probably not. We hear so many lies today from so many people. Some are advertisements with implied lies. If you buy their product, you’ll be cool or thinner or happier. Advertisers sometimes take a fact and dress it up so they can use it to their advantage. “Fat-free” and “No Sugar Added” are terms dieting people look for. They are not guarantees that you will not gain weight while eating that product. Those terms might be the truth, but they’re not the whole truth.

This reminds me of Adam and Eve in the garden in the book of Genesis. I think Eve was such an easy target because she’d never heard a lie before. Adam had no reason to lie to her. God didn’t lie to her. She never needed to be cautious about believing what she’d been told. So the serpent took a fact and twisted it to cause a change in her life. He might as well have said, “Once you eat this fruit, you’ll never be the same again. Your whole life will change.”

Sounds good, doesn’t it? But shouldn't that kind of advertising make us skeptical?

Adam should’ve sat her down and said, “Let’s think this through. Something doesn’t sound right about it.” Instead, Adam and Eve made the mistake of their lives. They were duped. They were ashamed. They hid from God, worried about his reaction to their fruit-tasting experiment.

They sewed leaves together. You probably didn’t know that camouflage clothes were thousands of years old. Knowing God would eventually find them, they hid in the bushes and waited.

When they heard the question they dreaded, “What is this you have done?”, they responded, and then they heard the judgments and curses that came about because of their sin. When God finished warning them about the aftereffects, he made clothes for Adam and Eve.

This reminds me of when my kids were little. If they made a mess, they tried to fix it or hide it. I can imagine God looking down on Adam and Eve and thinking of them like I thought of my kids. The first thing I had to do was talk to my kids about what they had done, and then reassure them. Next, I had to take off their filthy clothes, clean up the kids, and put new clothes on them.

That’s just what God did. He spoke to them, pulled them out of their leaves and put them in better clothes. God made leather clothes for them – or animal skin clothes.

He did whatever was necessary to give Adam and Eve freedom to discover new things and make decisions, but he also wanted to protect them. Now that they had to deal with thorns and thistles, they had to wear leather for protection.

God loved Adam – before, during, and after he sinned. Giving him clothes was a part of that love.

Second Chance at Life 3

1 Kings 17:12

“As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

A widow, depressed because of the drought and famine in the land and because of the emptiness of her kitchen, decided to make one last loaf of bread for herself and her son before they die. Elijah asked her to make him a small loaf first so that her supply of flour and oil would never run out until it rained again.

That makes me think of the verse in Exodus 22:22, “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.” But in 1 Kings 17:7-24, Elijah never intended to take advantage of her. He was obeying God, and he wanted to bless her and prosper her by helping her act on her faith in God.

Staring at empty shelves in the fridge makes you feel the emptiness in your belly. If you had practically nothing in your kitchen, would you do as this widow did and plan your last meal? Or would you spend time reading the Bible, listening to God, and worshiping him rather than focusing on your lack?

God is more real than the lack in your life. When God is more real to you than what you feel, it’s easier to trust and listen to his plan.

The widow had to obey God’s plan as spoken by the prophet. You can obey God when you learn to listen to him. You can listen to him better when you stop listening to the distracting noise of lack in your life.

The widow and her son who were given a second chance to live out their faith in God had to change the way they were living in order to take advantage of the lessons learned from the prophet. When we get a second chance, we have to take the “do-over” seriously. We have to change something in how we respond to the situation or we’ll waste the opportunity.

Today, you and I must take a look at lessons we learn in life and make changes in order to apply those life lessons.

Second Chance at Life 2

John 8:3-4

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.”

When I read this story, I always think it’s funny that the man wasn’t caught in adultery, just the woman. But Jesus had mercy on the woman. He forgave her. At the same time, he chose not to give a small sermon about how many men in that place had been with her or with women like her. He was allowing the men time to recognize on their own that they were pots calling the kettle black. They had no business accusing her.

Jesus was the only one without sin, and he didn’t accuse anyone.

That woman was given a second chance in life. She was told to leave her life of sin, and I imagine that’s just what she did. I wonder if her accusers did.

If her story makes you think of a sin in your life, you can receive forgiveness today. You can walk away from your sin and start a new relationship with Jesus.

His hands are open to you.

Second Chance at Life 1

John 11:32

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

December is a busy month. We want to shop for special things to give to those we love. We want to go to Christmas parties. But we also want to have time to sit with Jesus and worship him.

How do we make time for everything we want to do? Yesterday’s To Do list has become a Wish I Had list. We wish we had done more to show love and help others. We wish we had invested in people more often.

When we read about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, we see a picture of his sisters telling Jesus they wish he’d been there before Lazarus died. But Jesus didn’t have a Wish I Had list.

He only did what he was supposed to do. He knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead before he ever died. There was a purpose for it or it wouldn’t have happened.

God makes his plans work out so that we see him with a new perspective. He wants us to get to know him better.

God’s plans are always better than our plans, but they don’t look anything like our plans. No wonder God laughs at our plans.

Do you need a second chance at life? When Jesus raised Lazarus back to life, Lazarus had a second chance to do things he should’ve done before. He had a second chance to listen to and obey Jesus.

We don’t have to be raised from the dead to start our life over. We can submit to God today and begin a new relationship with Jesus.