It’s time to up the ante. Pour it all out, everything you are counting on and holding fast to, because complacency is rotting our families from the inside-out. We need to step into each situation, each interaction, each opportunity…pur-pose-ful-ly. Say it slowly in your mind. Make it your mantra.
Just like a dear friend I have serving in a dangerous land. She must be alert for the safety of all those around her is at stake. She must live, pour it out fully and trust that God will show her how and when and where and why. She is tied securely to the hem of Jesus’ garment, as He is her faithful Guide. She cannot be complacent–eyes open, ears open, heart ready, mind engaged, feet at-the-ready–for at a moment’s notice, everything she has could be taken away by her adversaries.
Nor can we as Americans sit by and do nothing. We, as believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, must walk and live on purpose and with alert attention. For we may think we are in a safe place. We may be complacent and trusting. We may live with our heads below the sand. Then we may be entangled and trapped and carried away by our own smug sense of security and inattention. We need to live like it counts, like each decision is a strategy for battle. Oh, and it is.
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
D. Bonhoeffer
So when we choose where to work, how to spend our time, who we hang with and a host of other daily-type activities–all seemingly harmless choices–we find that we are choosing life or death. We may find that we are building with someone, who is impacting our homes, who even may say they serve God, but they also serve other gods. And what we thought we were building, it is fine ash, blowing to every corner of the earth in the wind. We do not sacrifice our families, like they tell of in the Old Testament, to the flames. No, but by our own inactivity and inattention, we are serving them up to be eaten alive.
I think about Ezra 4, where the Israelites were rebuilding the temple under Cyrus, king of Persia. It says that adversaries came up (“playing all nice”) to help them build. The Israelites responded to them, you have no place building with us! They saw that this is no meaningless game we are playing, this is real life–and a real battle with a real-live enemy. It goes on to say that the Israelites will spend the next 20 years with these adversaries trying to undermine their building–to frustrate the project (as my ESV notes say).
Let me hand to you the life-giving principle that these words have sparked in my heart: you have not only the right, but a clear directive to choose with whom you build (and where you build and how). No one else has a say in it. You get to choose to not build closely with those, who will undermine what God is clearly calling you to do. That is not to say that we need to be mavericks and run this race in a heedless manner. We need good counsel. We often need redirecting and correction. But, we also need to learn from those, who seem different from us–to learn and grow and be polished under the pressure from not being able to let our guards down. For the case may be that WE are the ones serving God and other gods…and we may be the ones needing redirection.
This is a battle. There is no doubt about it. We need to know God’s Word–memorize it for we may not always be free to have our Bibles. We need to be in a local body of believers, who will sharpen our faith and challenge us to press in even more to know Jesus and encourage us to humbly serve and give, like Isaiah 58 says. We need to have discernment and wisdom for all of our steps and choices. To bind it all together, we need to let go of guilt that comes from not choosing to build with those, who may spend the next 20 years undermining and distracting us from the good course that God has marked for us and for our families. We have the right to be alert and live on purpose–watching for entanglements that will trip us and side-stepping them in faith.
This is a hard word, and I hope I shared it well. My heart is that we would choose this day, whom we will serve–and whole-heartedly serve God for our and our families’ sake. We need to stop sleeping through this life and wake up to the battle that is on-going with a strategy and an unwavering eye–all the while, releasing the guilt into God’s faithful hands. He knows our heart. And as a wise woman of God so aptly said, when God convicts us, He gives us action steps to take. If it is the enemy, then the conviction will be circular, leaving us feeling inept and helpless–he wants to frustrate our building above all others. Our God is FOR us, and He is our way-maker. So let’s step forward this moment and live like it counts, because it really does matter what we choose. It is life or death for us and our families–for our communities and nation. Press on, brothers and sisters in Christ–and PRESS IN to Jesus.
How will you help us fight the battle?
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