Unleash Your Inner Warrior
"Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible." My dear warrior, A man is made by the small decisions he makes every day. The decision to do right or wrong; to indulge his fancy or be disciplined; to work hard toward his future or to lay back and enjoy folly; to dream big or resign himself to ‘que sera sera’. It is the small choices that shape our paths and therefore our lives. The choice to resist or give in to sin is always there. And no matter how large or small the instance may be, God is moved by our hearts when we choose to resist sin and (in our passion for Him) to live a life pleasing to Him. Likewise, even the smallest decision to give into sin (thinking ‘just this once can’t hurt’) causes us to be separated from God and leads us down the path of destruction. Busyness is the enemy of the spirit. This week I found myself convicted of sloppy spirituality. We’ve all experienced this lapse in our spiritual lives: when life simply gets too busy, and you find yourself having less and less time, and rather than making sure to put God first, we continually push time time with Him to the back burner until we are not making time for Him at all. As that happens, we become more and more exhausted; we find ourselves with less and less time; and our lists get longer than our days and there seems to be no relief, no end in sight. Why? Because we have lost sight of what should have been first in all things: time with the Lord our God. We make small decisions that put other things before God.
In these last two weeks or so, I have found myself becoming increasingly weary, and I have felt the effects of continual spiritual warfare without the refreshing of coming before Him in sweet intimacy. I have not returned to the Father for the renewing of my heart and mind, and have not spent time in the Word and in conversation with Him as before. I found myself exhausted, weary, and feeling shadows of stress, depression and anxiety. I had not journaled or poured my heart out before the Lord just as I have taught you to do; and when did speak to Him, I found my efforts to be lacking, at best. I allowed my lack of energy to take me away from the One who desires to refresh and renew a right spirit within me. Beloved, our time spent with God is so precious. It should be the starting point of our lives, and certainly should be the starting point for each and every day. On Sunday, I was convicted of my lackluster relationship with Him and repented (repent comes from the Greek word 'metanoia,' meaning ‘to change your mind.’). Then the Lord began to talk to me about relationships. One thing I was reminded of was something Bill Johnson once said, “Friends just like to talk.”' So often we are absolutely one-sided in our relationship with the Lord. Perhaps you monologue at Him and consider that good enough; perhaps you ignore Him but then expect you to answer the occasional prayer (or demand) that you fire off from time to time; perhaps you expect Him to talk to you, but you never take time to listen; or perhaps you expect someone else to be Moses for you, so that you don’t have to talk to God yourself. No matter what type you may be, your Father in heaven desires to have deep, intimate relationship with you, to commune with you on a personal level. He loves to engage in conversation and know your heart—but He also wants you to know His. "I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me find Me,"--Proverbs 8:17 I'll give an example: I might know absolutely everything there is to know about C.S. Lewis. I could know all the important dates in his life, everything he’s ever written, have read all his letters, know how he took his tea, and what brand his favorite pipe was. But there would all simply be facts that I know about him. That is not the same thing as knowing a person. I have never met the man in my life (and never will, this side of heaven). So while I may know all about Him, it is vastly different than actually knowing Him. It is the same with us and our Father in heaven. We can read Scripture about Him, get to know all the facts, and have information about Him without ever actually getting to know Him. He longs for us to get to know Him; He wants to share the deepest thoughts of His heart with us. The reverse is also true: God knows everything about you. He knows your name, your favorite color at every age, the number of hairs on your head, all of your embarrassing moments and all of your triumphs. But if you never have a conversation with Him, if you never share your heart with Him, if you never tell Him your dreams, feelings, regrets and sincerest thoughts, He will never know you. That is precisely what Jesus talks about in Matthew 7: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.’” --Matthew 7:21-23 God has so much to say to you, and He wants to know your heart! He did not create robots, androids or automatons so that we would simply operate the way He programs us to. He is a loving Father who created us as a bride for His Son, the bridegroom. He made us human and gave us free will so that we could choose to love Him. He chose to love you, and longs to be loved in return. “God is a Lover looking for a lover, so He fashioned me,”—Misty Edwards Relationship takes effort. It cannot be one-sided. We must put effort into relationships that matter to us. If we don’t, then what is there to speak of? Time spent with God is not about how much time you’ve devoted in rituals or at church, about checkmarking things off your list, or about how many prayers you’ve prayed and simply doing what is ‘required’ of you. No, Beloved! He longs to know your heart. Your relationship with God is a living relationship that should be tended to in sweet, tender, loving devotion. I confess that in the last two weeks that I have absolutely been guilty of this, and have been convicted of it. I have not taken the time to talk with Him or just to listen, or to share the burdens I have carried. Because of it, I have not known my own thoughts. But by talking with Him, I get to tell Him all that is going on and get to know my own heart in the process. Beloved, take time to talk with the Lover of your soul. Enter into simple devotion to your Lord: He is calling to you! We do not commune with Him for the sake of religion or to keep up appearances. If you try to earn God's favor, if you keep up a religious checklist merely as a means to stay out of hell, or try to be a good person out of your own willpower and striving, but you lack intimate relationship with the Lord then you will burn out. It may take awhile, or it may happen rather immediately, but you will burn out without Him sustaining you from that place of communing with Him. "But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings may come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we should be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him." —C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity Let your devotion to the Lord come out of love and a passion for His heart. Ask Him to let you love Him the way He loves him. Jesus Himself is the revelation of God's love, and we can ask Him to love God the Father with the Father's love, just the way Jesus does. If you love that way, then you will not burn out. Ask: Lord be the seal of fire on my heart. Let me love You with supernatural love. Let me love You with the Father's love! Remember, friends just like to talk. Go talk with Him. Stay strong in the Lord, dear warrior heart, Yours, Warrior Beloved ©Michèle Aimée, 2015
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Mere Humanity: Becoming a Mature Christian in an Immature World
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