Dear Precious Friends,
How many times do you get up early to have your quiet time with the Lord and ... you check your phone, you check your email... and before you know it... your time with the most important person in your life is completely compromised?? Many years ago some dear friends took me to C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Newsletters" play... It was amazing and depicted the spiritual battle we are all in every single day.
Lewis wrote insightfully about how easy it was for people to be led astray by the small things in life, among them, as Screwtape drily notes, “the very small print” of the Bible, which he hopes is too hard for humans to bother reading. When the Patient falls in love with a Christian woman, Screwtape confidently tells his nephew that “courtship sows seeds that will grow into domestic hatred.”
When anything distracted the main characters from spending time with the Lord or choices made were sinful... the little Devil "minions" would celebrate.... Whenever the choices the main characters made were Godly and putting the Lord first... A lightning bolt came down and frazzled the Devils "minions".
My friends we are in a spiritual battle every single day. This especially includes when we wake up and the distractions that take us away from our Lord.. social media distracts us, or all the bombardment of news, email, internet, tv takes our focus away from spending time with the Lord, unhurried, in His word, listening to Him and taking in His truth which changes our day!
Are we walking in the Spirit or walking in the Flesh... It is such a battle each day yet when we are armored up as Ephesians 6 reminds us to do each day before leaving:
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
I find that there are times when I rise and have the best of intentions to spend time with our Lord, I can easily get distracted and then before you know it... I run out of quality time to spend with the #1 person in my life and rush through reading his word, laying before Him my petitions and getting a great start to my day...
On the other hand, when I rise and go to my quiet place away from distractions and open His word, listen to praise music from Hillsong and spend time with Him... I am filled with joy and my day is so very blessed no matter what I am facing...
So, in the morning when I rise... Give me Jesus.. grab your coffee and go to your special place.
We are reminded:
God is who He says He is.
God can do what He says He can do.
I am who God says I am.
I can do all things in Christ.
God's word is alive and active in me.
Now we are armored up and ready to start our day!
Who agrees?
Have a blessed day!!!
AMEN!!
