Spiritual Warriors

An area in my life that the Lord has really been helping me understand, concerns my fight against sin and what is pleasing to Him. This has been an exciting and convicting topic to go through! I've been struggling with the feeling of despair over my sinfulness and have sinfully been making my sin bigger than what Christ accomplished on the cross for me. I can often take a legalistic stance of abstaining from sin and forget to take action in pursuing righteousness. But God is so kind to speak to me when I need it most and yesterday He used an article titled, "The Beautiful Fight" by Gary Thomas, to help me. In this article, Mr. Thomas, is speaking about how Christians can often be so wrapped up in not sinning, that they forget to walk in what God has called them to do. We are living our lives on the defense and not on the offense. Warriors don't just fend of the enemy. To win the war they must be offensive as well. And a key part of their victory is to follow their commander. If they stay back out of the reach of danger and don't move forward when their commander says to march, they will most likely be overtaken. As Christians we can't just stay out of the reach of sin and sit idly back. We must pursue the victory of righteousness that God is calling us to.

*"I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.- Acts 13:22"
*"I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.- John 17:4"
*"I have not been disobedient to the vision given me from heaven.- Acts 26:19"

Mr. Thomas says that if we spend all our energy on avoiding what the Bible says we will do, which is that we will sin, than we are fighting a losing battle. That's not to say that we should stop fighting against sinful temptation, but by offensively striving toward righteousness, we will be fighting against sin. Thomas uses a great example of how we sometimes think of holiness. "One great weakness (out of many) of the spiritual pacifism approach is that it fosters, at best, an uneasy neutrality. Look at it this way: From the perspective of a spiritual pacifist, we could create "instant holiness" by putting every believer in a coma. In that state, we won't lust. We won't curse. We won't steal. We won't lie. But will we be truly holy?"

This topic has also caused me to think about the scripture in the Bible where it says that David was a man after God's own heart. For whatever reason I've always interpreted this scripture as meaning that God held David in high regard, but I think there is another side to this as well. "David was a man after God's own heart." David was striving after the heart of God. He wanted to have a holy heart. In the Psalms he prays to love what God loves and hate what he hates. He knows that the best way to grow in his sanctification is to pursue the heart of God. And by doing that, our desire to sin will become less and less. By choosing righteousness, we are fighting against sin. But we are doing it by becoming more like Christ. We need to go farther than just not sinning. "In the same way, I can focus on not listening to vile music. Fair enough; there's no reason to poison my mind. But why stop there? Why not pray, 'Lord, how do I offer up my ears to hear your voice in the midst of the din? How can I learn to hear what others are truly saying? How can my ears become your servants?'-G.T." In essence Thomas is saying that growing in our sanctification doesn't require perfection, but it does require progression.

~Holy Father, there is none Holier than You and as long as I'm on earth I will never be able to attain perfection. But help me to pursue righteousness in a way that is pleasing to You. May I strive after Your heart as David did. May I always pursue righteousness through Your strength, for I know that I cannot do it on my own. May You be glorified.Amen~