Every Christian must fight

There is a reason we are given the imagery of armor in preparation for the life before God in Ephesians 6. This imagery is used because our life is a fight. It is a constant fight against the things which keep us from getting to God. Closeness to God is our ultimate good as indicated in Psalm 73, but our life is always full of things which prevent us from that ultimate good of closeness. Those things never cease to present themselves each day. They must be fought and laid aside so we may continue to come closer to God.

This is why Ephesians 6 gives us a whole and complete armor for our daily fight. Every day we are to prayerfully and intentionally put on this armor that we might fight back all those things which prevent us from getting to God.

The life of the follower of Jesus is anything but lazy. The life after Jesus is a fight, and if we fight correctly each day it will only be done with the strength of Jesus Christ found in intentional prayer.

Missing God

Our world is saturated with the Holy. It is full of God’s presence. God’s presence are the very waters we swim in each day, and yet every day and every week I can close each one having completely missed Him.

When we realize the truth of Ephesians 4:6 that is over all, through all, and in all, there becomes a saddening reality on our part. We realize God is present everywhere, and we still miss Him entirely in the course of a day or a week.

We need what Richard Foster calls prayer of examen of consciousness. We need to recognize what Erwin McManus calls divine moments in need of seizing. We need with Brother Lawrence to practice the presence of God.

Each day is full of God’s presence, and my mind and heart need to be attentive to His presence. I need to ‘prayerfully reflect on the thoughts, feelings, and actions of my days to see how God has been at work among me and how I respond’ to those moments.

Each day is my opportunity to be present where I am. God invites me to see and hear and respond to what is around me, and through it all, to discern the footprints of God.

What may God be doing in and through my kids today? What may God be inviting me into through the neighbor, the barista, the homeless man I come across today? What may God be teaching me or forming in me through the loss of a job, the loss of a love one, a confusing circumstance, or a relational altercation?

These are all divine moments when heaven invades earth. More specifically, these are all moments Heaven invades my world today.

I only pray and ask that I have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Avoid the slow leak

When you have a slow leak, it may go unrecognized until it is too late. All the necessary fluids are leaked out until seizing breakage happens.

This is the nature of our relationship and connection with the Father. Oswald “Ozzie” Chambers writes, “spiritual leakage begins when we cease to lift our eyes unto Him.” We can allow this leak to continue over the course of days and weeks until life brings about that seizing breaking moment. Suddenly our lack of care to look to God with routine has caused our greatest breakdown. “Only when God brings you to a sudden halt will you recognize how you have been losing out [all along].”

When you look at your heart and life, is there already a slow leak beginning in your routine connection and entanglement with the heart of God? Do not wait for the screeching halt and ultimate break down to care for that slow leak. It will be too late by that time. You will have to only take on the bigger cost of repairing the broke down heart that could have been cared for with ongoing routine maintenance of the heart.

Practice the Presence

This one thing my buddy Henri said

“The farther I run away from the place where God dwells, the less I am able to hear the voice that calls me the beloved, and the less I hear that voice, the more entangled I become in the manipulations and power games of the world.”
– Henri Nouwen

In Abba’s Embrace

“The hand of God does not hold the man nearer, clasped in its grip, but sets him free, and its creative power becomes the longing love of the Creator for the creature.” – Bonhoeffer

This Bonhoeffer quote is a great image for my heart to see today.  I am reminded that God is not a vindictive dictator manipulating my every move so that I remain near to him and his model for my life.  That would not be love!  If, in his phenomenal power, God manipulated my every move that I had no option but to love him back, I would not have loved him anyway.  But as a phenomenal Creator, he has given me life and asked that I be close to him and yet allowing me to live that life as I choose.

I am reminded of one of many fears I had of becoming a father.  If I raise a child with great love, I cannot imagine the pain of a time when my own daughter lives her own life without a desire to be near me and the love I have given her.  I imagine I would stay back, wanting her to go and become a woman; for her to grow into a strong woman; all along waiting back for her to desire time, connection, and nearness to me, her father.

This image has served me well today in my connection with the heart of God.

My Father has given me life to live, but how close have I desired to be?  He waits for me to be near while he also enjoys seeing me go and grow and mature.  I long to be near my Abba who has given me life and brought me this far into the person I am.

Entangle

Not only did Jesus come to teach, but
He is still making you
what he teaches you to be.

This is not something Jesus
puts into you;
it is himself
in you.

Come closer and identify more
with Jesus than you
just try to follow the teachings

This is not behavioral modification
it is entanglement.