The Battle is the Lord's

In a war, the soldiers sometimes surrender a battle, but sometimes they actually surrender the whole war. Spiritual warfare is very similar to a physical battle.

If we surrender in a battle, we live to fight another day. If we surrender the war, we leave the outcome to a higher power. God is our Higher Power, and He desires that we completely surrender our life, love and will to Him.

Our Father knows best, and He wants only the best for us. He will never leave or forsake us, and He provides for our every need as we trust exclusively in His provision and care (Hebrews 13:5; 1 Peter 5:7).

The alternative is to fight the war from our own strength. This predictably ends in us suffering from battle fatigue with no more strategy to win the war.

Even if we surrender temporarily, with aspirations to return to the war in our own strength once we recoup, we end up right back where we are now…exhausted, discouraged and feeling overwhelmed.

We must come to the end of our self at some point in our life and totally surrender to God every thought, word and deed - led by His Spirit in everything we think, say and do.

We accomplish so much more with our remaining life than we ever did during all of the years on our own recognizance. We waste so much time when we live life our way instead of God's (Ephesians 2:20).

It is never too late to surrender, however, no matter how old we are. Sometimes, it takes us a while to learn to "let go and let God". The point is to totally surrender every battle to the Lord and we will eventually win the war as well.

Prayer:

Father remind us to trust only in You with our whole heart, not to rely on our human intuition or wisdom, to totally surrender to Your will and purpose for our life, and to allow You to direct every battle of the spiritual warfare in which we are embroiled (Proverbs 3:5-6).

We cannot trust our heart or our mind to safely lead us (Jeremiah 17:9). Only in Christ do we have half a chance of making a lasting difference in this world (Philippians 4:13). You give us Your wisdom and Your Word, directed by Your Spirit with a fail-safe battle plan every time (James 1:5; Psalm 119:105).

Thought for the Day:

True power and wisdom come from Christ in us, not from our own resources; so the wise will totally surrender to Him each moment of life and wait expectantly on Him alone. 

-  John 15:5; Psalm 46:10

Childlike Faith

 

God made mankind in His image and likeness (Genesis 1: 26). God is a triune being...Father, Son and Spirit. He created us as triune beings with a Spirit, Soul and Body. Genesis 2: 7 states, "And the LORD God formed man (body) of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (spirit); and man became a living soul."

Due to Adam's sin, our spirit is dead within us at birth, until we ask Jesus Christ to be our Savior. Then the Holy Spirit breathes the breath of life into us and our spirit is redeemed. We cannot truly live integrated, connective lives until we are Born Again. Our body is our physical being that ends up in the grave at our death.

Our soul is our mind, will and emotions. Our mind is renewed into the mind of Christ (Romans 12:2), our will is submitted to the will of God (Philippians 2:13) and our emotions are controlled by the Spirit of God who dwells within us (James 1:19). Our soul also contains our Inner Child, Inner Parent and Inner Adult.

David spoke of the Inner Child of the soul when he stated in Psalm 131:2 , “Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother's milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.” So often, we lose the innocence of childhood and adopt a prideful and rebellious mindset.

As we grow up in this life, we surround our self with defense mechanisms to prevent others from perpetrating their sins on us. We mature quickly and develop strong emotions, which we use to protect our self. Unless we nurture that childlike aspect of our soul, and allow the faith and unfettered trust of a child to reign in our hearts, we cannot fully please God (Matthew 18:3).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, help us to remember that in order for You to fulfill our soul, we first need to be filled by Your Spirit. Our spirit must be born again by asking You to be our Savior and our Lord (2 Peter 3:18). Then, our Inner child will feel more secure, and adopt that childlike faith, which You desire from each of us.   

Thought for the Day:

Unless we are Born Again and become as little children, we have no hope of entering the kingdom of heaven. - Matthew 18:3

Focusing

Whenever we walk through life and forget to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), we change our focus from God’s glory and majesty to what is happening around us. This is discouraging to say the least. Our soul – our mind, our will and our emotions - gets disheartened and sometimes actually becomes sick inside of us (Proverbs 13:12). To change this, we can take Paul’s advice and focus our mind on eternal things, not on the temporal, day-to-day grind that we face here on earth (Colossians 3:1-2).

Our daily worries and concerns take our eyes off Jesus and put them on our self. When this happens, our troubles and trials multiply until we are overwhelmed. We unwisely pay attention to foolish people and allow them to affect our life. We submit to people who take advantage of us and treat us abominably or who lord their life and success over us. Instead, God advises us to flee from people who are carnal and evil. He also tells us to take captive every one of our thoughts and to submit them to Christ (Psalm 35:12; 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Corinthians 10:5-6, 11:20).

Paul gives us a checklist to do this. Rather than to focus on our little microcosm of the world, God wants us to place our thoughts only on things that are true, honorable, righteous, pure, lovely and admirable. We cast out negative thoughts from our imagination and take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. We think only about things that are excellent and worthy of praise (2 Corinthians 10:5; Philippians 4:8). Once we do this, our spiritual equilibrium returns and we find a smile bubbling up from deep within our soul. A fulfilled longing is sweet to the soul (Proverbs 13:19).

All authentic Believers have died; and it is no longer us, but Christ that lives His life in us and through us (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3). If we let Him, He will deal with our stress at work, the mean spirited people, our wayward children, our mounting bills, our messy house, etc. He lives within us and He motivates us and gives us wisdom and strength to face every issue with victory and grace. Our real life is hidden with Christ in God. Once we realize this, we are no longer negatively affected by the world going on around us.

If we focus on our failings and our sins, we try in the flesh to remove these issues from our life. We lose our joy and peace because we are no longer focused on God. Instead, we can repent of our sins and shortcomings, give them to Christ and allow the Holy Spirit of God to do His work within us. God rids us of all guilt and condemnation (Romans 8:1). As we focus on Christ, we live good lives among the unsaved people in our world. Although they may accuse us of doing something wrong, if we keep our eyes focused on Jesus, they will ultimately see our good works and glorify God with their life as well (1 Peter 2:12).

Every morning, we put on our new self that is being renewed and changed into the image of Christ (Colossians 3:10). Each day, we clothe our self with Christ, and He provides a shield that repels all the fiery darts from our enemies (Romans 13:4; Psalm 33:20; Ephesians 6:16). God knows what is happening in the planet around us and He has everything under HIS control. There is no need for us to bother or worry about anything at all. God has an opinion about everything in our life and an answer for all of our questions. We just need to spend time with Him in prayer about all our concerns and then leave them in His capable hands.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, when we look around us we get discouraged. When we look within us we get depressed. However, when we look to You, we find joy that defies description and we bask in Your glory (1 Peter 1:8). As we keep our mind centered on You all day long, we live in peace and we are led by Your Spirit through every moment of every day (Galatians 5:16, 25; Romans 8:29). Your truth sets us free, and we live with high praises to You in our heart and on our lips (John 8:32; Psalm 149:6).

Thought for the Day:

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” - Hebrews 12:2