Featured Scripture and Commentary
Proverbs 3:5–6 (KJV) Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Here is a poll:
When we find ourselves at odds with our brethren how long does it take before one of us remembers that as per Paul in Eph 6:12-17 it is not aginst flesh and blood (thee and me) that we struggle but against dark evil forces seeking to drive us apart and bring us down?
__________never
__________too long
__________until we do damage to each other
__________I am right there. I immediately say “hey, let’s not fight each other. Let’s rejoin against the real enemies
__________other
We fight each other because we lean on our understandings instead of trusting in God and his mighty word.
We fight each other because we are blinded by the darkness, manipulated by the deception and triggered by the words and action and
we forget to consult God. We become in those moments the devil’s minion. There is a reason why nobody who has enmity with any of their fellows
in church may engage in communion.
There is no shortage of scripture which reminds us to not react, to pause, to welcome the Lord into that pause and rely upon his understanding.
While you have read it before I invite you to consider any times recently where things were not 100% copacetic between you and another of good faith and pray to the Lord that He might guide your steps and that you might listen. This is only done if we trust the Lord with ALL of our heart and let ourselves be used as an empty vessel filled by him as in Galations 2:20: Yet not I but through Christ in me. Not to our reactions, our thoughts about things, people and situations but to peace and then prayer and then as St Francis said to our being used as an instrument of God’s peace, wisdom, love, etc.
There is nothing new under the sun and that includes dramatizations of spiritual warfare. Let us pray as David did that the Lord will create in our hearts a new thing and that we will have different responses lest we look at our paycheck (signed in blood) and determine we were working not for Yahweh or Jesus but the check is signed “The Adversary” “The Enemy” or “The Accuser” or “The Father Of Lies”.
Then let us acknowledge the Lord.
CORROBORATING SCRIPTURE
Isaiah 55:8–9, Jeremiah 17:5–7, Psalm 32:8, James 4:13–15, Proverbs 16:9
Isaiah 55:8–9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Jeremiah 17:5–7 Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord… Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
Psalm 32:8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.
James 4:13–15 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow… For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.
PRAYER FOR WHOMSOEVERS
Lord, I renounce the idol of my own understanding. I stop trying to map out what only You can see. I lean my full weight on You. Acknowledge me as Yours, and direct my steps. I release the need to know, to control and to decide. Instead I choose to live in your peace and to trust. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
