God Works Differently

Have you heard the phrase, “God answers prayers in three ways: yes, no, and not yet?” It’s fairly accurate and a good way to comfort those who feel like they aren’t hearing from God at a time when they feel lost or are asking something of Him.

But sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we expect. Sometimes, His yes looks different than our own. Occasionally, He points our lives in directions we never even considered to go. Often, when we expect giant miracles, we overlook the small, but equally useful, ones God provides. And when that happens, we can respond one of two ways: we can accept His direction and receive the blessings that come, or we can rebel against it because it’s not what we thought he was going to do.

This is the situation that a man, Naaman, in 2 Kings found himself in when he went to the prophet Elisha to be cured of a skin disease. Naaman’s story is a classic example of how we often find ourselves dealing with God.

When Naaman heard of a way to have his skin disease healed, he immediately took off to find Elisha and receive that healing, but when he got there, Elisha told him something he didn’t expect.

2 Kings 5: 10-12 says, “Then Elisha sent him a messenger, who said, ‘Go wash seven times in the Jordan and your flesh will be restored and you will be clean.’ But Naaman got angry and left, saying, ‘I was telling myself: He will surely come out, stand and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and will wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease. Aren’t Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?’ So he turned and left in a rage.”

Naaman’s expectation was that of a showy miracle the likes of which Elijah had performed when he called down fire in the challenge against the prophets of Baal. As the Bible says, he was expecting Elisha to make a big show of things to heal him. He was expecting something different, out of the ordinary. But what he got instead was, essentially, “go take a bath.” It would have been considered a ritualistic bath, but it was a bath nonetheless. And, contextually, the river Jordan might not have been the cleanest river to go bathe in, anyway.

So, because Naaman didn’t get what he expected, he basically stormed off in a rage. For a lot of people, the story would end here. Many of us would likely have a prayer answered in a way we didn’t like and we’d ignore the answer, missing out on all the blessings that would have come from it. Thankfully for Naaman, he had some very good servants.

Verse 13 says, “But his servants approached and said to him, ‘My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more should you do it when he tells you, ‘Wash and be clean?’’”

They basically called him out on his idea of what a miracle should look like. The weird thing about all this is that if Elisha had asked him to do something ridiculous to be healed, like, for example, to catch and kill 37 chickens and cut off one toe from each foot, slather them in oil, pin them together and wear them as a headdress for three years, Naaman would likely have done it without hesitation. But because it was something so simple as “go take a bath,” he thought it wouldn’t do anything and wasn’t worth his time.

But his servants convinced him, and verse 14 says he went, dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, and was healed of his skin disease.

But it’s not just one person, or even just a few people, who do this. When Jesus, the son of God was born and walked the Earth, people refused to believe he was who he said he was, not because he didn’t perform miracles, but because they expected God to grant them a warrior king who would slaughter Israel’s enemies and bring about the restoration of the Israelite nation. But because they got the Jesus who wanted to save and not the Jesus who wanted to destroy, they refused to acknowledge his claim as the son of God.

I’ve said similar before, but as believers, we are far too willing to lean on God working miracles in the fashion of deus ex machina, wherein He does these massive miracles that are grandiose and spectacular in every way when, really, God works intricately for the good of those who live Him. We expect God to step in and fix all the bad things that go on in the world like he didn’t place millions of tiny miracles, His people, on Earth to do it for Him.

We are all too ready to ignore the small things because they don’t necessarily look like what we expect God to do for us. And we are all so reluctant to do small things because they don’t seem grandiose enough. But what if we didn’t? What if we stepped up when we were called? What if we stopped looking for what we want God to do and start looking for what He is actually doing?

If you change your mindset about how God works, you’ll find that you’re far more blessed than you think you are. You’ll see God doing so much that you never would have noticed. He’s always working; you just need to be looking in the right place.

As a final note, take a listen to the song attached below. Strive to change your mindset to think of life this way, to realize that you are one of God’s miracle workers who is here to do the good He has called you to do. Do something with that.

Listen to Do Something on Spotify. Matthew West · Song · 2012.

Healing is Uncomfortable

On Sunday, my pastor preached about healing with the main focus being what Jesus asked a sick man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem (John 5:6) “Do you want to get well?” And the sermon hit home with me, so I wanted to share it in my own words here.

Sometimes, we become far too comfortable in our character flaws. It’s a lot easier to tell people “Oh, I get angry pretty often,” or “My eye wanders too often to places it shouldn’t go,” or “Well, I just don’t mince words. I call it as I see it” than it is to fix the underlying issues: that you are an angry person, easily set off, that you lust after every attractive person you see, or that you are rude to people.

For me, it was always more comfortable to be angry at, and rude to, people who upset me or I didn’t feel comfortable around. I was standoffish and unwilling to become close to anyone because I was anxious. For a large part of my life, I didn’t handle people well, and I convinced myself it was just part of my character. It was easier to get angry at people than it was to confront other thoughts and emotions when they asked for forgiveness. It was easier for me to get upset than it was to think about what happened in their life recently to cause them to act that way.

But after confronting those things and working to change how I react to people, I’ve found myself settling into my new behaviors and living far more at ease with those around me than I ever did before. It sucked at first; things were always awkward, and I probably made myself look silly a few times, but I got past the embarrassment and discomfort and became more like Christ.

We act like our sins are part of who we are as if nothing’s wrong because we’ve lived with them so long we don’t know who we’d be without it. But, specifically when it comes to sinful behavior, God calls us to rid ourselves of that, even though it’s uncomfortable, but you have to want it.

As with all facets of our faith in Christ, changing who you are to become who God wants you to be is a choice. There’s no magical change that’s going to happen in your life when you’re saved or when you ask God to confront your sinful behavior that will immediately stop you from sinning. You have to actively choose every moment to not partake in that behavior anymore until the new action becomes more ingrained and natural than the old.

And that’s why Jesus asked the man if he wanted to get well. The man in John 5 had been sick with his malady for 38 years. That’s 16 years longer than I’ve been alive. He had all that time to grow comfortable and live with whatever it was that kept him from walking, working, and doing daily activities that most people did. He likely had few to no responsibilities. He probably never did anything on his own.

So, it was probably more of a dilemma that we all thought when Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?” He had to confront within himself whether he’d rather finish out his life living as he did where he had others to take care of him and nothing to do but live and relax or deal with the pain and discomfort that would likely come from learning how to walk again, dealing with moving muscles and joints that hadn’t been exercised in 38 years, getting a job, providing for himself, paying taxes and tithes, etc.

Now, the Bible doesn’t tell us what happened with this guy after he was healed, but I can at least tell you what would’ve happened physically. Given time, the man would beat the pain and awkwardness of learning to walk after 38 years of not being able to. His legs would’ve become comfortable with the movements, and not only would his quality of life have been greatly improved thanks to his walking, he would find so much more enjoyment in living. He would’ve been able to go out with his friends, take a walk at sunset and see God’s beautiful creation, or pick up a hobby.

What we’re dealing with in behavior change looks like this: a false comfort in sin, discomfort through change, and then perfect comfort in Christ. As I’ve said frequently in other articles, sin is not fulfilling, but Christ is, and in fact, He overflows you with fulfillment. While change invites discomfort, once you reach the top of the hill, things become so much better.

I know when I first read this chapter, I thought the question was kind of silly. Of course he’d want to be well, I’d thought. But when I considered it this way, I realized how important of a question it was. To become more like Christ, you have to want it, and you have to choose it all the time, even, and especially, when it’s uncomfortable.

It will be uncomfortable for awhile. Healing usually is: as cuts heal and scar, they itch; as your body fights off disease, you get a fever; and as your heart and mind change, you deal with discomfort as well. But once it’s all said and done, you’ll find you’re much better off having gone through the healing than you were living in the sickness.

Life is Empty

Ecclesiastes chapter 2 expands upon the pointlessness of earthly pleasures, going so far as to call everything achieved in this life emptiness. My personal Bible has subheadings for parts of the chapters, and three of them in this chapter are titled “The Emptiness of Pleasure,” “The Emptiness of Possessions,” and “The Emptiness of Work.”

It’s really interesting how Solomon hits on the three main things that we consider the largest vices in today’s times: pleasure: sex, partying, and the like; possessions: money, a house, nice cars, etc.; and work: a solid career, things built by your own two hands, and more. These three things are the trifecta of unfulfilling tragedy.

Let’s start examining the emptiness of these with pleasure. Verses 1-3 say, “I said to myself, ‘Go ahead, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good.’ But it turned out to be futile. I said about laughter, ‘It is madness,’ and about pleasure, ‘What does this accomplish?” I explored with my mind how to let my body enjoy life with wine and how to grasp folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what is good for people to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.”

Sounds dreary, doesn’t it? It might even sound untrue to many. Because, surely, laughter can’t be madness! It’s happiness in a sound. It’s contentment. It’s joy. And pleasure absolutely accomplishes something! It gives happiness, comfort, and contentment. But do these things really do that? I say no, and here’s why.

Look at laughing from an outside perspective: how long does it last? When you laugh, you may go on for as many as few minutes, but when you’re done laughing, the effect is gone. Your eyes uncrinkle, your lips settle back into a relaxed position, and the sound of merriment is snuffed out. As soon as the moment has passed, so too has laughter. So too, has any benefit. It’s fleeting.

And what about pleasure? Parties, alcohol, foolishness. It all feels great temporarily, but what happens when you leave the party? When you sober up? When you face the consequences of your foolishness? All of what you experienced in the midst of these actions is gone. You break free of the monotony for a few moments, and then it comes right back.

Next is possessions. Verses 3-10 described all that Solomon gained in his life. He had houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, every kind of fruit tree, a whole irrigation system to water his trees, tons of servants, more cattle and sheep than he knew what to do with, silver, gold, and all kinds of treasures, his own private musicians, more than 700 wives and 300 concubines. As he says in verse 10, “All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles.”

So, if there was any person to ever exist who could have found joy in things he owned, it was Solomon. Yet, he didn’t. Verse 11 says, “When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.”

Even though he worked hard to get all those things, they weren’t worth it. I find that this part of Ecclesiastes fits really well with Mark 8:46, “For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life?” Clearly, it benefited Solomon in no way. As we know from the book of 1 Kings, he had the kingdom he presided over taken away from him and given to David for the things he owned and did.

And finally, we get to the emptiness of work. In verses 18-19, 23, it says, “I hated all my work that I labored at under the sun because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will take over all my work that I labored at skillfully under the sun. (23) For all his days are filled with grief, and his occupation is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.”

Man, talk about dreary, yet again, with Ecclesiastes. But really, take some time to think about this. Personally, I’ve had those moments where I’ve thought deeply about my life on this Earth, having to wake up early in the morning, drive to work, work all day, drive home, work at home, and then sleep, just to do it again the next day. If I think too hard about it, I nearly have an existential crisis worrying about how meaningless those actions are. Just thinking about the monotony of it could drive me insane, and I doubt I’m the only one who has considered this.

Don’t you spend some nights wherein you consider just giving up going to work because you’re not accomplishing anything, anyway? That’s what Solomon’s talking about here. Solomon was wise and skilled at many things, and he dreaded the idea of passing on the achievements of his work to someone who would not do it as well as him. He dreaded it to the point that he dreaded doing the work, and he realized that there’s no point to it all.

Here’s the conclusion: Everything about this Earth and life on it is empty. Your happiness is empty because it cannot hold you up. Your possessions are empty because they are worth nothing in the grand scheme of things. Your work is worth nothing because after you’re gone, someone else will come along and ruin it. Not to mention that there’s nothing satisfying about the monotony of 50 years of a career.

As I’ve mentioned before about Ecclesiastes, its whole job is to drill it deep into your heart and mind that the things on this Earth cannot and will not satisfy you or bring you joy because its goal is to point you to the only one who can: God.

Let me tell you that I did not write all this down and post it online to disenfranchise you about life to the point you decide to do nothing with yours, and neither did Solomon write Ecclesiastes for this reason. In fact, now that I’ve made the point that you can’t find joy and satisfaction in these things, I’m going to tell you to go out and do those things anyway. Because while you can’t find joy and satisfaction in them, you can find happiness.

This is about perspective. In the long term, yes, this life means very little. But in the here and now, God has given us time here to do these things. I think Solomon says it best in verses 24-26:

“There is nothing better for man than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand, because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from Him? For to the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy, but to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and accumulating in order to give to the one who is pleasing in God’s sight. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.”

See, as Christians, we can have happiness in the things we do here because we have the joy of Christ in knowing that, once we’re done here, there is everlasting joy to look forward to. We can enjoy the things of this world because we are already satisfied by Christ. We will never be satisfied by the things of this world, but we can have a little fun doing the things that are not sinful. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing some of these empty things if you’re already full.

Winning isn't Necessary

Getting the last word in all the time isn’t just unnecessary, it’s downright wrong and completely uncalled for as far as us Christians are concerned. We’ve probably all had those arguments where we just go round and round for ages because we refuse to concede defeat.

But I have to challenge you, and myself: what are you conceding defeat for? What will you lose if you don’t browbeat the other person into submission? Does your point suddenly become meaningless because the other person had the last word? Do you die because you lost the argument? No. You have only your own pride to lose and only yourself to disgrace. And is that really what you’re fighting for? Useless, sinful feelings?

The Bible, specifically Proverbs, has a lot to say about the subject of speaking, arguing, and pride. Sometimes, it’s better not to say anything. Sometimes, it’s fine to say your piece and move on. But, it’s always important to keep a guard on your emotions and the words that come out of your mouth.

Let’s go in chronological order for an argument, shall we?

Proverbs 21:23 says, “The one who guards his mouth and tongue keeps himself out of trouble.”

And Proverbs 13:3 says, “The one who guards his mouth protects his life; the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.”

It’s a lot easier to avoid sin if we don’t entertain the actions that lead up to sinful behavior. That’s running away from temptation. And, a lot of times, you’re better off just not saying anything at all. Some people are out there just trying to start trouble—you know the people I’m talking about. They aren’t in the conversation to learn and listen; they just want to make you angry. So, as my dad says, “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and let them think you’re a fool than to open it and prove them right.”

Next up is Proverbs 10:19, which says, “When there are many words, sin is unavoidable, but the one who controls his lips is wise.”

This one’s pretty clear. The more you speak, the more likely you are to sin. Particularly in an argument, the more you say, the longer you argue, the more incensed you get, the more likely you are to say something out of anger or hate and sin against God and the person you’re arguing with.

So, say your piece and move on. Let me let y’all in on a little secret: you’re never going to convince someone they’re wrong in the middle of an argument. Emotions run too hot for that, and a lot of the time, people don’t even bother to listen to the other side any more than it takes to refute their point. Winning an argument comes after it’s all said and done, when you have the time to sit back and think about all that was said. You don’t win the argument. The other person loses the argument against themselves.

But, if you do get in an argument and you have something you feel led to say, there’s a way to say it that is in line with how God would like us to act.

Proverbs 17:27 says, “The intelligent person restrains his words, and one who keeps a cool head is a man of understanding.”

And Proverbs 15:1 says, “A gentle answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath.”

Two key points come from these verses: keep calm and speak softly. Don’t attack someone’s character. Don’t raise your voice and yell. Speak in a kind, yet not condescending manner, as if you’re having a conversation with a friend, and nicely refute the points they make with your own points backed by facts.

I’ve learned more and more that it’s impossible to hate someone who’s nice to you all the time. In the same way, it’s impossible to keep up the energy to yell, scream and say mean things when the other party is calm as can be.

And finally, sometimes, you just need to let it go. Let the argument go. Let your pride go. Losing an argument is not the be all end all. Getting the last word in for the sake of your pride is losing far more than letting the other person think they’ve won.

Proverbs 11:12 says, “When pride comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom.”

And Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.”

If, in your arrogance and pride, you go until you get the last word in, the only one to suffer and lose is you. Not only has your character, as seen by other people, been disgraced because of your actions, but you’ve sinned against God in your prideful behavior.

And in terms of sharing the Gospel, there has never been a single person who was converted by a Christian getting the last word in during a heated theological argument. Defend the faith, yes, but tell them the Gospel, tell them the facts, and then let them stew on that. It’s not always your job to grow the seed you planted.

Seriously, take it from someone who was as habitual about getting the last word in as most people are about their morning coffee. It doesn’t matter. Let them have the last word. Move on. You won’t even notice you “lost the argument.” Your character won’t disappear. In fact, you’ll likely feel better than if you had said the last word.

I’m going to adapt the phrase I quoted from my dad earlier: It’s better to let them believe they won than to say the last word and hand them the victory.

We are Nobody

This is an important truth we as Christians must realize that is spoken of in the rather popular song called “Nobody” by Casting Crowns, featuring Matthew West. It’s interesting that this issue, in my opinion, happens to be the biggest holdup most Christians have when it comes to living their lives as God has called. We don’t like being nobody because it means we have to give up ourselves, and that’s hard.

But we’re called to do it. Philippians 1:21 says, “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Notice that this verse doesn’t say, “To live is Nathaniel, or Jacob, or Elizabeth,” or any other name. It says to live is Christ. While you live, you are to be Christ, not yourself.

And in case that one isn’t enough, here’s another one straight from the mouth of Jesus in Luke 14:25-27, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” The Greek word for “hate” there, miseo, means hate, detest, love less, denounce. If you can’t denounce your own life, then you can’t live as Christ because you’re living for yourself.

This doesn’t mean you can’t value a wife, children, your parents, or your own passions because those are gifts given to you by God, but if you value them more than God, then you’re not doing it right.

That’s why I think the message of “Nobody” is so important. Specifically, I think of these lines:

So let me go down, down, down in history

As another blood-bought faithful member of the family

And if they all forget my name, well, that’s fine with me

I’m living for the world to see

Nobody but Jesus.

Your name, your legacy, it’s just not important. It’s not anywhere near as important as the legacy of Christ. Sure, you can leave your name and family legacy to your children, but if you don’t leave them the legacy of Jesus, what does it matter? If they don’t have Jesus, they’re going to Hell. Carrying on whatever human legacy you want to leave behind isn’t even close to the significance of leaving an inheritance that could show them to their eternal salvation.

To become nobody, to give up yourself to follow Christ is the ultimate goal. You want to go down in history as a member of Jesus’s family above all else. And being nobody comes with some really good news.

Have you ever felt called by God to speak to someone or do something? Have you ever been directed down a certain path, but you’ve chickened out because you’re scared, or run away because you didn’t want to do it?

Really think about this. How many times have you allowed your reputation, friendships, or job to keep you from sharing the Gospel? How often do you let your inhibitions stop you from going where God has called you?

The good news about making yourself nobody is that you give plenty of room for God to step in and take care of your fears. You give God room to do great things through you that He won’t do if you’re trying to stop Him every stop of the way because of your fears. Take these next lines:

Moses had stage fright

And David brought a rock to a sword fight

You picked 12 outsiders nobody would’ve chosen

And You changed the world

Moses was afraid of speaking to Pharaoh, but instead of giving into his own fear, he made his own fear nothingness and let God speak through him. Moses was unable, but God was able.

David was a shepherd with no skills but those meant to protect a flock of sheep. He was a boy, not a warrior. But he gave up who he was and God used him to defeat the mightiest Philistine warrior. David the shepherd never could’ve performed such a feat, but David, the nobody directed by God, did this amazing thing.

The 12 disciples were already nobodies, and Jesus picked them up and turned them into somebodies, using them to create a kingdom of nobodies who are somebodies in Jesus. See, our persons get in the way of God because they can fail, they have insecurities. But if we push those aside and keep ourselves from getting in the way of God, He can accomplish wonderful things through us.

So, go to the end of the line with the not-quites, the never-get-it-rights, the nobodies, and let God use you to do amazing things for the kingdom because that’s worth so much more than anything we could ever do alone.

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Stop the Christianese

I’ve heard this term, Christianese, a lot more as I spend an increasing amount of time in the greater church community by listening to podcasts and sermons from some of the bigger, younger names out there. It’s a term more often used by the millennials than Gen X or Baby Boomers, but it’s relevant all the same.

Christianese is our own, believer-based language that we use frequently to communicate aspects of our belief and portions of God’s character because we’ve developed a vocabulary specific to these things. If you don’t really know what I mean by Christianese, think of it as our dialect, our jargon, our vernacular.

The thing about Christianese, and indeed, every other dialect of any language, is that only those who have the necessary living experience with the language can understand it. And that leads to my grievance against Christianese. In the church, it might be fine, but we cannot go about using it when we speak to nonbelievers.

The story behind this is more personal than my other articles, but I’m not writing this just because I don’t like it. I’m writing it because I think changing our language when we speak to nonbelievers will help us show Christ to that many more people.

I grew up in the church. I was there pretty much every Sunday, Wednesday, and any other day there happened to be something going on. I did all the activities: every Vacation Bible School, every youth event. I sang in the choir as a child, and I picked up jobs in the other churches I attended, too. But I went because that’s what my family did. I went because I thought that’s what I did. But my heart wasn’t in it.

I knew all the answers. I had all the lines down. The head knowledge was absolutely there. And I was a pretty dang good actor, too, if I do say so myself. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think too many people questioned me. But while I knew God, I didn’t know God. I didn’t have a relationship with Him. But I was always in the church, so I had a pretty good view and understanding of the church and how we did things.

I remember sitting in Sunday School and listening to my teachers. I would cringe when I heard them use certain words to describe the actions of God towards us, not because of the actions, but the way they were described. I thought they were childish, silly, and entirely nonsensical.

One of the phrases that always sets me off is, “You have to fear God.” Not because it’s not true. It is true. But the words don’t compute when you hear, “God loves you. Love God.” That’s because nobody really bothers to explain it. We all just assume everyone understands that when we say, “Fear God,” what we really mean is respect God. Respect His power, His ability, and His grace and mercy, knowing that it could be turned against you should you not accept Him into your heart. Although, what does that even mean to a nonbeliever? It doesn’t make sense unless you already know the Bible.

And listen, if I didn’t understand that as a teenager growing up in the church, nonbelievers and new converts have no chance of getting it. The knowledge and experience just isn’t there for them.

I was always confused by these lines, too, “I just had a feeling,” and, “I just heard God speaking to me so clearly.” I never understood those because I never audibly heard God speak to me, and I couldn’t separate my own feelings from whatever feelings these people were experiencing. These are phrases that create undue confusion for a lot of people.

So, we need to knock that off when we’re talking to nonbelievers and new believers alike. We’re feeding them phrases based on the meat of the Bible when they’re still struggling with the milk. It’s like trying to go to Russia and preach the Gospel in Portuguese. It just won’t work. If you want to speak to Russians about Christ, you have to speak Russian.

Similarly, if you want to talk to nonbelievers about Christ, you have to speak their language. We have to find a way to put our experiences with Christ into a tangible, understandable format for those who have no experience with Him. Otherwise, you’re going to get a lot of “Christians” who aren’t actually saved and don’t know how to pursue a relationship with Christ. And even worse, you’re going to create a lot of people who avoid Christianity because we sound like a bunch of loons.

Hey, in your midweek Bible study with your small group, or among friends you know have developed a deep relationship with Christ, use the Christianese. It works there. But keep it away when you’re talking to those who don’t know our language. It’s hard enough to show them who Christ is without adding a language barrier to the difficulty.

Stay on Guard

Here’s a fact that a lot of Christians have likely lived through: You are attacked most often by the enemy when you are at a high or low point in your walk with Christ. And I would argue that you’re attacked more often at the mountain tops than the valleys. Here’s why and how to combat these attacks.

We’re going back to the tried and true teaching method: the metaphor. We’re soldiers fighting in a war against sin. However you feel about that, that’s how it is. We are constantly waging war and fighting battles against an enemy that attacks us in numerous ways. Sometimes he’s sneaky; sometimes he overwhelms us with brute force. But he never attacks us with what we’re prepared to handle and alert to guarding.

It’s a war, and you never directly attack a position with alert soldiers with more strength than you. And let me be fully clear here: with God on our side, we have far more strength than Satan could ever muster. So, Satan does not attack us head on when we’re prepared because he knows that assault will fail to breach our defenses.

So, I’ve pointed out two main ways the enemy attacks us: with brute force and with stealth. The first occurs when we’re at the lowest point of the valleys. You’re worn out and weary. You feel all alone. You feel separate from God. So Satan attempts to overrun you with numbers. That saying, “Don’t kick a man when he’s down?” The enemy loves kicking us when we’re down, and then he’s going to try and beat us like a dead horse. It’s those times in your life when horrible thing after horrible thing comes at you.

I don’t want to get too specific because I risk ruining the comparison for some, but it’s like you get sick, and then you maybe lose your job, and then someone close to you passes away, and it just feels like you’ll never get up. (There’s actually a song that pretty much nails the description of this feeling that I’ve linked below this article. It’s not a strictly Christian song, but it pretty effectively nails the principle.)

How do you beat this? Well, as the song describes: you just keep moving. That’s a tough thing to do. You’re not going to have the strength to do it on your own, which is precisely why you’re being attacked in that manner. Satan knows that if you try and fight alone, you’ll be overwhelmed. That’s why we’re given two basic directives when being overrun in a battle:

The first is to lean on the strength of God. I like Psalm 18:39 for this, though there are many verses that share the same sentiment. “You have clothed me with strength for battle; you subdue my adversaries beneath me.” (Matthew West’s “Strong Enough” is a wonderful song about this subject.) The second is to lean on your Christian brothers and sisters, and share each other’s burdens, as Paul wrote in Galatians 6:2a “Carry one another’s burdens.” (Tenth Avenue North’s “No Man is an Island” is a good expression of the need to lean on others.)

On the other end of the spectrum is when we’re at the highest mountains in our walk with Christ. This is when the enemy employs sneak attacks to catch us off guard. Taking it back to our war metaphor, this is just after you’ve won a great victory and you’re celebrating. You take your gear off and lay down your weapon. Then, boom! Out of nowhere, a sniper takes you out, or a knife gets you in the back.

It’s here when you’re more vulnerable than even the lowest valleys. At least in the valleys you’re mentally prepared, even if you’re exhausted. But when you are without the armor of God, and the enemy comes around, you are woefully unready to defend yourself. At the mountaintops, we experience this intense euphoria that comes from growing closer to God, from achieving a victory over sin, and in that euphoria, we relax our minds and take off our armor. We stop thinking; we stop being ready.

In the climb to the top of that mountain, we’re in peak condition as we strive for the Lord. Our focus and awareness is so strong that no one could catch us off guard, but when we reach that peak, we drop that focus thinking we’ve won. Well, guess what? This isn’t a battle you win.

In the overall, yes, Christ has already won this war we fight against sin, but while we’re on this Earth as imperfect human beings, we’re just surviving. We don’t win until we go to be with Christ.

So when you reach that mountaintop, don’t lose your mental alertness. Don’t take off the armor of God. As 1 Corinthians 16:13 says, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith, be courageous; be strong.” Don’t ever give up. When you’ve reached the top of the mountain you’re climbing right now, get right up and head up the next one. Until the day you go home to be with the Lord, keep fighting the good fight.

And here’s a last little bit of hope for you that also goes along with one of the songs I’ve added below: The devil, unlike our God, is not omniscient, omnipresent, or omnipotent. He doesn’t know everything, he’s not everywhere, and he’s not invincibly powerful. He’s noticeable and beatable. If you’re on your guard and finding your joy and satisfaction in Christ, there is absolutely nothing he can do to defeat you and the God who stands beside you.

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Our Free Will

Have you heard the song “Already There” by Casting Crowns? If not, there’s a link to it at the bottom of this article, so go give it a listen.

This song tackles the omniscience of God and how He sees His plans for us compared to how we do, but I think many of us Christians understand this well enough to use it as a skipping point to a much more complicated subject that’s hinted at in this song, too, and that’s God’s presence existing outside of time and how we are to rationalize that with the concept of our ability to decide what we do.

We know God existed before time, in the beginning of time, in the past, the present, the future, and He also exists currently outside of time. It’s hard to wrap our heads around a God who can play with time like we do Play-doh, stretching it out and squishing it together. I know I struggle with it a lot, but I had to at least come up with some way to think about it because I had to tackle the topic of free will to answer a query presented to me by someone struggling with the concept.

Take the lyrics for the chorus of “Already There”: “To You my future is a memory / Cause You're already there.” It’s a little weird to think about God knowing what we’ll do before we do it. I think to some it sounds like He knows what we’re going to do because he’s destined us to do it, and there are a few Bible verses taken out of context that can make it sound like we’re destined to believe or not believe in God, to be saved or not be saved.

Of the verses I’ve seen taken out of context in this manner, here are just a few: Jeremiah 1:5, Ephesians 1:5, and Colossians 3:12. But those verses don’t necessarily mean that God made all humans, picked, for example, 50% of them and said, “these people will be the ones I choose to be saved.” To believe in such an idea changes the very character and nature of God. But what those verses do mean is that God knows something we don’t.

The simplest way I used to rationalize God’s omniscience with my little-iscience, my limited, fallible brain power, was that whether God knows you’re going to say yes to His gift of salvation, He still chooses to offer it to you.

And that’s an important conclusion, but it only addresses a small part of the question: how does free will work? So, let’s apply this to a much larger scale—the scale of one lifetime. You see, the thing that was bothering the girl who got me to consider this in a deeper way was concerned with how to live her life and fulfill her desires when she knew that God wants us to fulfill His desires over our own.

And we could get into the whole discussion about how our desires work in relation to God’s desires for us, but that’s a topic for another day and another article. So, the way to really think about this is to take a look at how God’s omniscience works and then try to compare it to something a little easier to think about.

See, if we’re doing this relationship with God right, then part of what we have is the deepest friendship we could ever have with someone. It’s one where our friend knows us so well He can tell what we’re thinking. That friends knows us so well that He could see us presented with any situation and know exactly what we’d do every single time.

For example, you’re presented with a choice of three flavors of ice cream: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. Your friend is with you as you’re given the chance to choose which one you want, and right before you reach out and take your preferred flavor, chocolate, your friend leans over and says “I bet you’re going to pick chocolate.” So, you reach out and grab the chocolate ice cream and eat to your heart’s content.

Does the fact that your friend told you that you would pick chocolate change that you would have picked chocolate anyway? Did it suddenly eliminate the other two options? Did it change how much you enjoyed the ice cream? Of course not. You picked chocolate because you like chocolate more than vanilla and strawberry, and you enjoyed it because you like it. It’s actually pretty simple, all things considered.

Someone else knowing that you’re going to choose a certain way doesn’t automatically make the other options disappear, and it doesn’t mean that you’re going to like the option you chose any less than if they didn’t know.

It’s the same thing with God. Just because He knows you’re going to choose career Y over career Z doesn’t mean you didn’t get to choose career Y. Just because He knows you’re going to choose to serve in a certain way doesn’t mean the option wasn’t there for you to serve in another way. Don’t let your fallible mind’s inhibitions keep you from doing what God wants you to do. You might end up pulling a Jonah and Nineveh situation, and that’s just not as pleasant as doing what you would find the most joy in anyway.

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Unique Positioning

It’s likely that you are very aware that you are a unique human being, an individual. We’re all members of the human race, but for each person, there is something that sets you apart from the other 9 billion members. Even identical twins have differences that serve to identify them as unique.

Similarly, though all Christians are part of the body of Christ, and we are all called to fulfill the great commission to make disciples of all nations, we’re not all called to do that in the same way. Even those who are called to the same positions within the church (pastors, worship leaders, teachers) there are differences that make you unique in your fulfillment of Matthew 28:19.

God did this on purpose. 1 Corinthians 12:14-20 says, “So the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,’ in spite of this it still belongs to the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,’ in spite of this it still belongs to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed each one of the parts in one body just as He wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? Now there are many parts, yet one body.”

Cleverly, God designed the human body very specifically. Every part of it is unique. Every part is necessary. And every part has to do its job to keep the body functioning at 100 percent. Even though you have two eyes, the inch or two that separates one from the other is enough that they each see the world from a slightly different perspective, even to the point that your right eye can see things your left can’t, and vice versa.

Here’s where I get to the point. There are two parts of being unique in your function as a Christian: your function, which is your job as a pastor, worship leader, teacher, etc., and your positioning, which is where you are at any given moment. Together, these two parts serve to identify your unique fulfillment of the calling to make disciples.

So, let’s break it down. The first step is to determine your function, or your spiritual gift, as it were. Each Christian has one or more spiritual gifts they are given by God through the Spirit to advance the kingdom, and they often point to how you serve in the church. Some are gifted knowledge and wisdom, so they teach; some are gifted the ability to manage, so they lead; some are gifted especially strong empathy, so they encourage. 1 Peter 4:10 says, “Based on the gift one has received, use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God.”

The second part is, arguably, the hardest part to live out because I think we often get the calling to serve wrong. I think we’ve come to this belief that only pastors or teachers can spread the gospel, that only missionaries can go out to the mission field and show Christ to others, that you have to be one or the other to evangelize.

But I think what we fail to realize sometimes is that you are where you are because that’s where God wants you. He doesn’t want an engineer to go to seminary school and learn to be a pastor so he can make disciples. He doesn’t want a scientist to leave her research field and run off to a foreign country to spread the Gospel. He wants you to show Christ to others right where you are.

Joel 3:10 says, “Beat your plows into swords and your pruning knives into spears. Let even the weakling say, ‘I am a warrior.’” See, in this verse, God doesn’t tell the gardener to go join the military. He doesn’t say to the shepherd, “Learn to shoot a bow and throw a spear.” He tells each one, “I have given you what you need for where you are. Shape it into a weapon to fight the good fight.”

In other words, you are uniquely positioned right where you are to advance the kingdom of God, so stay there, because that’s your mission field. You are necessary to the body of Christ right where you are in your everyday life. That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:21-22, “So the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’" But even more, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary.”

Sure, maybe a pastor can preach to 300 or more people a week in his church, and maybe TobyMac can reach 80,000 people at each of his concerts, but you are just as important. Taking it back to our body metaphor, in a pinch, the right arm can do the work of both arms if it has to, though it will never be able to reach across the body to the same distance the left arm could. (Try it. Reach your right arm across your chest. It just can’t get to where your left arm could.) But it wasn’t designed to. The left arm was designed to do the work of the left arm because only it can reach far enough away from the body. In the same way, a pastor could step out and do what an encourager/helper was designed to do, but he wasn’t designed to.

When one part of the body of Christ has to do the job of two parts, it makes the whole body less effective. That means we’re reaching fewer people when parts of the body aren’t evangelizing in their mission field. So step up. Pick up your briefcase, or grab your screwdriver and go to work, using what you have in your unique position to adhere to the calling of Christ. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19.

Love is Sacrifice

For King and Country’s “The Proof of Your Love” is a quintessential contemporary Christian song detailing Christ’s love and how we’re supposed to follow up on that in a world that desperately needs to experience it because we’ve all been thinking of love all wrong.

Take your favorite RomCom or other romance and picture the relationship between the two lovers. What brought them together? What binds them together? Would their relationship last outside the confines of the screen or book?

Now, my experience with romances is fairly limited, but from what I’ve read and watched, I’d say the chances are pretty slim. We have this misconstrued vision of love. This vision has come about through a combination of faulty views on what love is and how relationships work. We’ve been influenced by fiction stories and movies, and also, I think, by our society’s lack of openness about love in our relationships.

Let’s take a look at your classic movie relationship: the lovers often come together via a hardship experienced by one of the two. The other attempts to help them through it, to fix them, and they eventually catch feelings for each other and get together.

When people talk to others about how they “fell in love” with their significant other, the phrase “we just had a connection” is used fairly frequently. And maybe they did, but that’s not how love works. But that somewhat harmless phrase has been perpetuated and misunderstood as it has been conveyed through our societies, and now we have a bunch of people searching for a connection that, frankly, they’re never going to find.

We’ve got this definition of love as a feeling, an emotion, a connection, a noun. It’s the butterflies in your stomach when you see someone attractive or connect with someone on a deeper level, but that’s just not it. Those feelings are nice, valuable, wonderful, but they’re just that: feelings. Love? Well, love is a verb.

So, if love is a verb, an action, and not a noun, a feeling, then how does it work? Well, let’s go to the best example of love there ever was: Christ. He died. He sacrificed his life for us. It wasn’t selfish. It wasn’t for him to boast about his actions. It wasn’t prideful. It was done with a heart that desired the best for us.

It’s oft used, but John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” God the Son sacrificed Himself for us. That’s what love is. It’s sacrifice.

You see, the thing we call love now can’t be love because it’s selfish. It’s “loving” someone because you get nice feelings from them. That’s about what you want. But love is about what others need, desire, want. Love is laying down your life, and I don’t mean dying, for someone else. I mean choosing to serve and take care of the person you love before you take care of yourself. It’s setting aside yourself for the sake of another. John 15:13 says “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

Love doesn’t rely on feelings, either. It’s a choice. Why? Because if we are to love like Christ loved us (John 15:12), our love must be unconditional because Christ’s love is unconditional. He does not love us more or less when we make mistakes. So, too, when those we love make mistakes, we should not love them more or less.

I’ll leave y’all with this pure definition of love from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited, does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Don’t feel love. Do love.