White Flag part 3
We seem to have this idea of Christians as warriors. Onward Christian soldier and all that. Putting on the armor of God and attacking everything in sight. Everything that doesn't line up with our idea of holiness. Well, first and foremost I want to point out that the armor of God is for DEFENSE. I can't see where we're supposed to ATTACK anything. Even this idea of "good vs evil" was undone when Jesus instructed us to turn the other cheek. Romans 12:21 tells us to overcome evil with good. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you fight fire with fire everybody gets burned. I'm constantly bringing this up because I think it's important: The ONLY fight we're supposed to participate in is the good fight of faith. Which is laying hold of eternal life. Not GETTING eternal life (because it's a gift that has already been given to us), but laying hold of it. Receiving it so that we can experience it. Receiving it so that we can release it. Receiving it BY releasing it. And notice that it's the good fight of FAITH. Believing that what Jesus did on the cross is enough. Believing that HE won the war to end all wars. Believing that there is peace--because the fighting is over--and that we don't need to fight anymore. Let me say it like this, "The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace" (Exodus 14:14). And now, on this side of the cross, He HAS fought for us and we can hold HIS peace. Not peace as the world gives, but peace that passes all understanding. Peace that doesn't always SEEM to make sense. Because it often FEELS like we are surrounded by enemies. Or, if not enemies then at least by tribulations. It seems like if it's not one thing then it's something else. Feels like, "We are troubled on ever side..." (2 Corinthians 4:8). But let me put all of that verse, and the next two verses, into your remembrance so we really know what we're talking about. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (2 Corinthians 4:8-10). No matter what it FEELS like, we know the truth of the matter. We know that we have overcome, because Jesus already overcame. We bear His death. His greatest victory was when He surrendered. And because He gave His life for us, and gave His life to us, that everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life is manifest in us! He died so that He might put death to shame and bring forth a great harvest of life. He didn't fight for His life. He laid it down so He could pick it back up. So we would have nothing to fear. And that, to me, is what peace is. Peace is not the absence of things going on. Peace is the absense of FEAR ABOUT the things that are going on. Looking at things and seeing God in the midst of them. Knowing that it is all working together for good. This idea that we have to fight for every inch... that we have to (or CAN even) change what's going on... through our own efforts... is ludicrous. Jesus changed everything on the cross. We don't need to change anything. All we need to do is know and believe the change that already took place so that it can manifest in our lives. All we need to do is have faith. And faith comes from hearing. Hearing from the Word of God. What He ALREADY did. When He won. When He surrendered...