Originally published Tuesday, 10 March 2015.
Instinctively, I am one who loves to fight back.
I resurrect walls to keep others from hurting me.
I walk with a shield to keep things from getting past me.
I respond with defensiveness to make sure the fortress stays secure.
I grab my weapons so others know that I am a well-protected woman.
Bottom line, I am a fighter. I am a regular defender of my own causes.
But, God is calling me to surrender.
He is calling me to wave my white flag.
To lay it all down.
It's not so much that he doesn't want me to be a warrior, but it is that I have been going about it the wrong way.
While I have thought, arm up, he says, "Lay it down."
While I have thought, keep safe, he says, "Go risky."
While I have thought, protect, he says, "Let me be the protector.
He requests one position of me that is the ultimate military gambit. It is one condition that changes the whole battlefield. He calls me to it.
Will I lay down my plans? My armors to make this change?
Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you," declares the LORD. (2 Kings 22:19)
What is this condition the Lord desires?
It is an open, vulnerable, humbled and receptive heart.
It is a heart where walls are down, where weapons are abandoned
and doors lay wide open so the Lord can enter in and best do his work.It is a heart where God teaches us the moves
and the tactics that will change our lives.It is a heart where our arms learn to embrace
the Father like we never have before.
In this, we no longer need to wage war on our own because the ultimate Warrior is directing us. Why do you need yourself, when you have someone far greater than you leading you? What use are your weapons when you now have his?
We can trust that this ultimate General knows the best way for us and can take care of us better than we could ever take care of our selves.
"The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Ex. 14:14)
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