I’m in a fight not physical…

Welcome Friend,

Thanks for stopping by tonight.  I’ve been needing to talk to you, but I have not made the time for it to happen.  Welcome back; it’s so good to see you.  I know you’re busy, so I’ll get right to the meat of our conversation.  That’s one of the things I like about chatting with you…we manage to pick up right where we left off.

Things have been so busy around our house lately!  How about you?  Busy too?  I can imagine!  You always have so much going on…so many things that you’re doing…that is one of the reasons that I really treasure your stopping by to chat.  You’ve taken time out of your busy schedule to spend with me.  Anyway, as I was saying, things have been so busy around here lately.  It seems that we meet ourselves coming and going.  I have felt lately that I spend a lot of my time pouring out, and very little of it getting poured into.  A big reason for that is that I manage to run and run until I have no time or energy to stop and get a re-fill.  I am reminded of the verse that reminds us to “forsake not the assembly.”  It seems to me that we need to be among like-minded believers for two main reasons…first, we need them; and second, they need us.  Tonight, it would have been so easy to go home after work, put on my jammies and crawl into bed.  I needed to rest…relax…unwind.  However, I made the choice to go with my family to Bible study tonight.  I knew that I needed re-filling.  You can only run on empty for so long.  What a blessing it was! 

We are studying the book of Romans right now, and we’re on chapter eight.  Don’t you just love how the Word of God is “living and active” in our lives?  Tonight, one of the verses in our study came to life for me.  Now, I really don’t want this to denegrate into a theological debate here, but I read verse 18 with different eyes tonight.  Verse 18 reads, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”  It goes on from there to talk about creation waiting for the revealing of the sons of God and so forth.  For a moment, I’d like to focus solely on verse 18…I don’t want to take it out of context or anything, so please hear what I’m saying.  The past several weeks have been difficult to get everything done at work that I’ve needed to get done, so physically, I am fighting tiredness in that area.  This morning, I received some rather discouraging news, and I thought that I could do one of two things…I could sit in the floor and cry, or I could find something to hit.  Once I ruled both of those out, I got busy doing things that actually needed to be done, and I chose to walk down the halls with my head held high and not worry about something that might or might not come to pass.  So, tonight, when we read verse 18, my mind latched on to it, and for me, for tonight, I saw it in a different light.  When we have sufferings in this life, we have two choices regarding how we act…we can take the low road (get mad and hit something) or we can take the high road (walk with dignity the path we’re on).  If we choose to take the high road, think what our witness will be to others!  This is when questions come to us such as “What makes you different?”  “Why don’t you get mad and curse?”  “How come you act different than everyone else?”  When those questions come, even if they’re never verbalized, seeds are being planted!  How cool is that?!  So, through our suffering and taking the high road, God’s glory is being shown in us.  We’re walking around shining the Light into dark places just by choosing to react with dignity, honor, and holiness.  Cool stuff!

Let me be the first to admit that there will probably be times when I choose to sit in the floor and cry in the future; however, hopefully, I will pick myself up and walk the path that lights the darkness.  Let’s shift our attention to verse 37 of Romans 8, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”  We can conquer all the poison darts that the enemy throws at us…BUT we conquer through Him who loved us…it is not any power of our own.  If we are running on empty, we are not going to be conquering much of anything, but if we are plugged in to the true powersource, we will be able to conquer much. 

I have to remember that this fight is not physical (thanks to Phillips, Craig and Dean, I can sing it)…my enemy is not of this world.  His mission is to steal, kill and destroy.  He is good at his job, so we must be ever vigilant in our fight to shine the Light. 

As we end our chat, My Friend, I’d just like to remind you to make sure that you’re getting filled so that you can fill others.  I know that you’re busy, but I hope and pray that you can find the time…and the friends…to recharge and refill.  Blessings and peace to you and your house!

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