Sheila's Posts

I can’t remember when or how I began my vacation away from war. That’s probably because this type of leave to be absent from battle happens very gradually and without detection. It’s how Satan works. I should have known better.

Even becoming conscious of my consequences for not doing as God says in Ephesians 6:11 occurred very gradually, but now that I’m starting to detect the connections, I’m in awe over how many ways and how far I’ve slipped backwards in my walk with the Lord.

Things like mental overload, bad decisions, insomnia, confusion, anxiety, etc. have been getting ridiculously rampant in my life. The real attention getter for me came from a recently acquired illness I’m still waiting to finish recovering from.¹

Becoming aware of what’s going on spiritually isn’t enough to change course when you’re ensnared away from completely living in God’s will. For a long time I’d pray for God to help me reverse direction. What may have been the turning point I needed could be from the words of encouragement I read in Phil Smouse’s book My Everyday Promise Bible. It was the promise for day 196 entitled Not a Reward. Reading the words, “New life is a gift, not a reward for the good things we have done…” instantly lifted me out of my state of despair. I especially liked how Smouse ended that day’s promise with the question, “Why would you try to pay for it if God will give it to you for free?”

Being reminded new life is a gift put me back on my feet spiritually, but, to not get knocked back down, Warren Wiersbe’s book What to Wear to the War is what I needed to re-read. I had been reading the bible as usual, but for some odd reason His word wasn’t penetrating through to me. The more I continued to re-read Wiersbe’s book, the more I realized why reading the bible wasn’t enough to stop Satan from having his way with me. I was living like a tired soldier trying to take a vacation while being on a battlefield.

It’s true that if a Christian isn’t moving forward spiritually, he is falling backwards. There is no middle ground or time for taking a break from wearing God’s armor. I’ve said God never sleeps. I should have added that Satan and his demons never sleep either. Christians may and should sleep physically, but never spiritually. My spiritual laziness and ignorance has led me to make the type of mistakes that rob a Christian from getting more and more of God’s kindness and peace.

The Living Bible states the remedy for fixing such mistakes quite well through its paraphrase of 2 Peter 1:2-12,

Do you want more and more of God’s kindness and peace? Then learn to know him better and better. For as you know him better, he will give you, through his great power, everything you need for living a truly good life: he even shares his own glory and his own goodness with us! And by that same mighty power he has given us all the other rich and wonderful blessings he promised; for instance, the promise to save us from the lust and rottenness all around us, and to give us his own character.

But to obtain these gifts, you need more than faith; you must also work hard to be good, and even that is not enough. For then you must learn to know God better and discover what he wants you to do. Next, learn to put aside your own desires so that you will become patient and godly, gladly letting God have his way with you. This will make possible the next step, which is for you to enjoy other people and to like them, and finally you will grow to love them deeply. The more you go on in this way, the more you will grow spiritually and become fruitful and useful to our Lord Jesus Christ. But anyone who fails to go after these additions to faith is blind indeed, or at least very shortsighted, and has forgotten that God delivered him from the old life of sin so that now he can live a strong, good life for the Lord.

So, dear brothers, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen, and then you will never stumble or fall away. And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I plan to keep on reminding you of these things even though you already know them and are really getting along quite well!

If you’re interested in reading more about The Pursuit of Christian Character, Bob Deffinbaugh offers some additional food for thought on this subject at the bible.org site.

¹Postscript added on 5.20.10 — Normally, I take Colloidal Silver to prevent an illness from taking over my compromised immune system. This time, however, I had none left and was too sick to bother taking myself to go buy some. I think I was too tired to even think of ordering it online, but finally a couple of days ago I ordered some and it just arrived a few minutes ago.