No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow. My dear warrior,
There are a few specific topics that are on my mind for this particular series, calling you to rise up a warrior. There is almost nothing I love more in this world than to sit down and to write all that God puts on my heart. But just thinking about these topics left me feeling almost paralyzed. This series I began in the arena is so important, but it is that same arena that had me feeling scared of writing these blogs. It was not only the arena itself, but the critics shouting and jeering from the stands. After writing yesterday’s blog, I feel a sense of relief knowing that my silent spectators rooting for me are among the crowd, and to simply have gotten this series started. Today it is time to address the critics.
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“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming...” My dear warrior,
There are times in our lives when it feels like no one is rooting for us to win, and everyone is looking for us to fail. It seems like no one is for you and everyone is against you. Sometimes you wonder if anyone out there has thought about cheering you on, or if anyone is on your side. You feel alone, completely abandoned, like there is not one sympathetic soul out there rooting for you. I have learned that oftentimes, while those who are against us are the loudest, there are silent spectators watching us, waiting for us to step into our identity. These are the ones who are for us, who are quietly rooting for us, praying for us, and cheering for us. They are sitting by, waiting to see what we will do, staying out of our way because they want to see us succeed. They are watching from the sidelines because they know the decisions we have to make must be our own. They know the victory has to be ours.  My dear warriors,
I’ve heard it said many times that the Christian army is the only army in existence that kills its own wounded. While I did not originally intend on releasing this blog today, my heart was too burdened with this subject to wait any longer to release it. Warriors who have a great calling on their lives often seem to get beaten down more than anyone else. My dear wounded warriors: you who press on despite the mocking, derision and beating you take on an almost daily basis, let me take this moment to honor you. The God-given call on your life is not simply a cloak that you wrap yourself in and see yourself magically step into. When you have a call on your life, you have direct orders from the King Himself about what it is you’re supposed to do, and you see who you are meant to become through His lens. The moment you receive your call, it is both thrilling and terrifying. You can scarcely contain your excitement as you realize “Wow. That is what I’m going to become! I know what I want to do for the rest of my life!!” At the same time, you suddenly feel yourself shrinking under the weight of this new call, and feel yourself becoming infinitely smaller as the mountain you must overcome to get there rises straight out of the earth and into the heavens before you. You suddenly realize you have no idea how you’re going to get there from here. But that’s ok. You’re not meant to do it on your own  “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” – Romans 5:3-5 My dear warriors,
On Sunday I had the joy of getting to listen to a brilliant man of God speak about suffering. It is something that has been on my heart for some time now, and I knew I would write about it today. As warriors, as Christians – and as humans – we are frequently faced with the reality of suffering. In these past few months, I have been dealt more than one heavy blow in my own life; I have met a woman who was thrown from a building and had nearly every bone in her body broken; I have met a man grieving the loss of his father; I have met a young woman without a place to call home. Tragically, suffering is part of the Christian life. According to scripture, it is a critical part of our formation, it is a critical piece of us becoming the men and women of God we are meant to be. My dearest warriors,
Last week, I touched momentarily on the difference between condemnation and conviction. I’m finding more and more that people do not understand the difference between these two things, and are unwittingly submitting themselves to lies that keep them from moving into their God-given potential. Rather than becoming warriors, they stay foot soldiers at best, and are casualties of war at worst. To refresh: Conviction is from God. Condemnation is from the enemy. Conviction is when God points to a very specific thing in out lives that is not right; he points to a flaw in our character, an ungodly trait in our lives that He wants to fix. He wants to upgrade us constantly, to remold us and reshape us into the image and likeness of Christ. Though there may be a sting here for not having lived up to His expectations, it is no more than when alcohol touches a wound. It may sting for a moment, but then He applies the soothing salve, a healing balm to make us whole. When God convicts us, He is encouraging us to run to Him, so that we can partner with Him and move forward in our development!  Earlier this week, I realized that I had an extremely important tool in my possession that I was carrying with me. As I was chatting with a new friend, I immediately knew why she was sharing her heartbreak with me: she desperately needed what I had. And I realized, I have shared this same tool over and over again -- how many more people are out there who are in absolute turmoil who need to know what I know?
"Be still, and know that I AM God" - Psalm 46:10 Scripture repeatedly tells us to "be still." Yet, in this fast-paced world, it can seem almost impossible to quiet your mind. It seems like you'd have to be a monk on some remote mountain top to get any kind of peace, and yet, even that seems like a foreign thought. But Warriors must know how to still their minds, how to silence the thoughts that rage through their heads, to calm their hearts. |
About the AuthorMichèle is a warrior with a passion for God, a deep love of writing, and a fire for combat training. As a warrior, she understands that when she is given orders, she must follow through. Archives
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