Did you ever stop to think how much your 'enemy' can tell you about yourself? Your true self, that is. Some of us find ourselves making excuses for our enemy's attacks - blaming them - all the while missing what that 'enemy' is telling us about ourselves. Some of us think this enemy is strutting around, just gloating because we aren't able to be free of whatever it is that is attacking us. Maybe if we'd stop long enough to consider the 'enemy' we face, we might just find we have been beaten by ourselves! I wonder how many times we find ourselves experiencing this "beaten down" state simply because of the subtle, but consistent, compromises we have made - allowing the 'enemy' inside of us without a single thought as to how it will affect us.
She played fast and loose with life, she never considered tomorrow, and now she's crashed royally, with no one to hold her hand: "Look at my pain, O God! And how the enemy cruelly struts." (Lamentations 1:9)
This passage speaks of the condition of heart and soul anyone will experience when taken in by the 'enemy of their soul'. If God took the time to leave us these words, we should take the time to consider how they might apply to our lives. Some of us would do well to recognize the 'enemy' reveals much more about ourselves than we might like to admit - things like our actual 'willingness' to compromise! I would like to take some time to consider four things today:
The condition of our soul: She played fast and loose with life. All of us are subject to this same condition of "soulish and immediate" enjoyment of life. We give into our whims and fancies, only to find ourselves totally unfulfilled and the cost of our fast living proves to be too much for us to keep up with. Don't miss it - she played FAST. The old idiom, "Haste makes waste," comes to mind here. Whenever we don't take time to really consider our choices, we often regret the outcome!
The condition of our mind: She never considered tomorrow. When one is living fast and loose, there is nothing more alluring than the pleasures of today - completely missing tomorrow's demands and needs. Take for example the choices we make to ignore the few extra pounds we see on the scale today. Eat as we like and those few will soon amount to many in the tomorrows which will come! It is often our lack of "forethought" which gets us into so much trouble. Our mind plays a tremendous part in the activities of today - for all action is based on our thought!
The condition of our spirit: She now has crashed royally. There is a tremendous cost to inattentive living which we rarely consider in the moment we make the choice to pursue that pathway. If you have ever experienced the "crash" of your hard drive, you know the sudden panic at having "lost everything"! The spirit of man is what gives us the unique animation and capability of deep, interpersonal relationship with others (especially God). When the spirit crashes, it is like our internal "hard drive" has crashed! The very thing which animates us, drawing richness from the throne of God, is interrupted in its ability to "make the connection".
The condition of our heart: She has no one to hold her hand. When we have no "connection", we lack the very thing we need to help in life's darkest moments! Compromise has a cost far greater than the moment of soulish or immediate enjoyment we experience. Mind, spirit and heart all bear the effect. A disconnected spirit leads to an empty heart. Don't despair! God's able to see beyond our choices and knows us better than we know ourselves. We just need to submit to the touch of his hands in our lives! As he touches us, respond with a new animation of spirit, the submission of your mind, and a whole new determination to consider carefully the steps you take. In turn, his hands remain close, bearing us up until we are restored into purposeful and delivered condition of heart, soul, and body! Just sayin!
She played fast and loose with life, she never considered tomorrow, and now she's crashed royally, with no one to hold her hand: "Look at my pain, O God! And how the enemy cruelly struts." (Lamentations 1:9)
This passage speaks of the condition of heart and soul anyone will experience when taken in by the 'enemy of their soul'. If God took the time to leave us these words, we should take the time to consider how they might apply to our lives. Some of us would do well to recognize the 'enemy' reveals much more about ourselves than we might like to admit - things like our actual 'willingness' to compromise! I would like to take some time to consider four things today:
The condition of our soul: She played fast and loose with life. All of us are subject to this same condition of "soulish and immediate" enjoyment of life. We give into our whims and fancies, only to find ourselves totally unfulfilled and the cost of our fast living proves to be too much for us to keep up with. Don't miss it - she played FAST. The old idiom, "Haste makes waste," comes to mind here. Whenever we don't take time to really consider our choices, we often regret the outcome!
The condition of our mind: She never considered tomorrow. When one is living fast and loose, there is nothing more alluring than the pleasures of today - completely missing tomorrow's demands and needs. Take for example the choices we make to ignore the few extra pounds we see on the scale today. Eat as we like and those few will soon amount to many in the tomorrows which will come! It is often our lack of "forethought" which gets us into so much trouble. Our mind plays a tremendous part in the activities of today - for all action is based on our thought!
The condition of our spirit: She now has crashed royally. There is a tremendous cost to inattentive living which we rarely consider in the moment we make the choice to pursue that pathway. If you have ever experienced the "crash" of your hard drive, you know the sudden panic at having "lost everything"! The spirit of man is what gives us the unique animation and capability of deep, interpersonal relationship with others (especially God). When the spirit crashes, it is like our internal "hard drive" has crashed! The very thing which animates us, drawing richness from the throne of God, is interrupted in its ability to "make the connection".
The condition of our heart: She has no one to hold her hand. When we have no "connection", we lack the very thing we need to help in life's darkest moments! Compromise has a cost far greater than the moment of soulish or immediate enjoyment we experience. Mind, spirit and heart all bear the effect. A disconnected spirit leads to an empty heart. Don't despair! God's able to see beyond our choices and knows us better than we know ourselves. We just need to submit to the touch of his hands in our lives! As he touches us, respond with a new animation of spirit, the submission of your mind, and a whole new determination to consider carefully the steps you take. In turn, his hands remain close, bearing us up until we are restored into purposeful and delivered condition of heart, soul, and body! Just sayin!
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