If I were your enemy, I’d tempt you toward certain sins, making you believe they are basically (even biologically) unavoidable. I’d study your tendencies and proclivities till I learned the precise conditions that make you the most likely to indulge them…” The very personal nature of this week’s discussion is undeniable. For where we might ask for prayer for healing, for safety in travel, for blessing, prayer involving our struggles against our favorite sins is a totally different thing. So what in this chapter helps? I noticed some things that really spoke to me. Three sin groups are:
Moral compromise can lead to a host of bad choices, which can lead to inappropriate or un-Christian actions, leading then to guilt, leading to cover-up.. You get the idea. Unhealthy habits, like the insatiable cookie habit of Cookie Monster, can shackle us in SO many ways. I have a sweet tooth. It’s a huge nemesis for me. I don’t know if sweets are a trigger for you, but whatever the habit is that gets to you, we all need to realize WHO is behind it ~ and it’s not divine. Even good things can become an addiction when taken to an extreme, given inappropriate priorities in our life, that 'good thing' can become a chain holding us back from God’s best for us! Finally, on page 124 Priscilla writes: “The devils’s strategy is to make us believe impurity is, well … normal … that nobody’s hurt if we keep a few forbidden things on hand and enjoy them from time to time. No big deal. But if we steadily engaged in fervent prayer--with our strategy counteracting his strategy---we’d see… unrighteousness is not “no big deal.” It’s a house of horrors. It’s a totally upside-down way to live.” It can’t be any simpler. Believing that whatever impurity you might be involved with, and to whatever degree, we should as Christians desire to be FREE of it! Life’s best is not found in upside-down Christian living, but in right-side up looking! Looking to God for direction! Looking to God for healing and strength. Look to God through the POWER of prayer to prevail!!! Amen and thank you Jesus!
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"If I were your enemy, I'd magnify your fears, making them appear insurmountable, intimidating you with enough worries until avoiding them becomes your driven motivation. I would use anxiety to cripple you, to paralyze you, leaving you indecisive, clinging to safety..." I've felt like the woman in this picture. Maybe you have too. You were climbing that mountain, headed in an exciting direction in your life and career, and then - you're STUCK! You were moving upward but now you're just hanging on for dear life! Fear of falling! Fear you'll lose your grip! Fear that help is not coming! Your whole life summed up by that one word: FEAR! Well -- that's the enemy's game!!! In this chapter we learn about how the enemy uses fear. Fear if we fail. Fear if we don't try. Fear of being shut down. He can instill fear in us using just about any situation. I can relate to a number of thoughts Priscilla had here. These are my top 3: On page 108 she writes: "What if no avenues crop us where I can get my work published or distributed? Even if I can, what if people don't find it helpful ... What if the financial adjustment we'll need to make in order for me to do it means my kids will have to give up some of the activities ... What if it all ends up being a total waste ... What if it's all just some sort of ego trip or head game..." The word if shows up 6 times in this short passage. Sometimes life if FILLED with if's it seems. Does that word ever had an impact on you? But I love the Scripture she follows up with, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1.7 NKJV Page 111: "I know the kind of paralysis that can harden around you when you're scared to death about going through with something you've committed to do, and you just don't think you're got what it takes to do it. I've known those times..." Maybe you have too? Then Priscilla reminds us that God told his children three-hundred times in different way, DO NOT BE AFRAID. Page 113: "... fear is the antithesis of faith." Then she writes: "In fervent prayers, we discover something: Our God is fearless. And because He is fearless, we can be fearless too." I love this Scripture: "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4.18 “If I were your enemy, I’d constantly remind you of your past mistakes and poor choices. I’d want to keep you burdened by shame and guilt, in hopes that you’ll feel incapacitated by your many failings and see no point in even trying again. I’d … convince you that you’ve had your chance and blown it…” Did you know that shame is considered the most effective tool the enemy has? Think about the deepest secret you have. You know, the one NO one knows but you. The one you don't even tell your deepest, dearest friend. What would you do to keep that secret -- to keep everyone you love from associating you with that sin? If right now you’re considering that cost, well, that’s a by-product of shame you feel over something you did. So now matter how old the sin is, it still has power over us if we experience shame when we think about it. The sin could be forty years old and still feel as fresh and shame-producing in your mind as if it happened yesterday. The truth is that shame never wears out. It’s not like sorrow that softens with time. And, it’s not like anger that mellows with reason into some form of understanding. It’s not even like regret that can morph into growth when God gets ahold of it and us at the same time. Shame lives on. It doesn’t diminish. It doesn’t mellow and it certainly doesn’t soften as we age. It tastes just as nasty as the day it was born! And nothing, nothing short of Christ can transform shame into anything good! We all have experienced shame. I’m not going to share mine and I won’t ask you to share yours, but we all need to realize ONE thing: Christ died for our sins and when he did not only our sin died --- SHAME for our forgiven sin DID TOO. The key is asking for forgiveness and turning away from that sin. After that we don't need to carry shame around! He died for all my sins. All at once. For good! And forever! NO SIN - no matter WHO did it - is more powerful than the work He accomplished to END sin's shame for good! What in this chapter has helped transform your prayers and bring about a resolution to shame? “If I were your enemy, I’d seek to disintegrate your family and destroy every member of it. ... I would make sure your family didn’t look anything like it’s supposed to. Because then people would look at your Christian marriage, your Christian kids, and see you’re no different, no stronger than anybody else---that God, underneath it all, really doesn’t change anything.” Priscilla writes our family ‘is a billboard for the eternal, unchangeable love story between God and humankind.’ How could that be? We’re so un-perfect. We routinely let our Father down. We seem to be focused on self way too often. We fight. We lie. What is there about our family relationships that resembles God’s love story with us? Even though our children may drive us crazy - they are our children. They are part of who we are. They look like us. They remind us of ourselves, and in them we find great joy. Once they come into our life we could never imagine being without them. And because of that great love we would do anything for them. Sacrifice. Support. Encourage. Protect. That’s just what God, our Father, did for us. That's what He wants us to give our family. Here’s what Satan wants us to do to our family. He wants to keep us from the Christ-like behavior of loving, sacrificing, protecting, and encouraging our family. Why? Because it makes us (a child of a loving Father of mercy and grace) look just like every other fallen individual who denies salvation and grace!!! When we pray for insight and wisdom, He, the Helper Christ gave us, gives us understanding of what’s going on, and why. He can show us the schemes the enemy of our soul - the one who only desires to destroy us. It’s the part about prayer that the enemy desperately wants to keep you from knowing AND USING! Jesus said, "The thief [the enemy] comes only to steal and kill and destroy..." John 10.10a If we ask for wisdom and God’s grace to see ~ AND PRAY ~ the real enemy WILL BE CLEARLY SEEN! ~ Andi |
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January 2017
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