Good Monday morning! Something has stolen our warmth! The sound of the wind this morning reminded me of winter; the sight of rain and moving trees reminds me that autumn begins today, in spite of what the calendar says. Yesterday, the warmth of summer in the pasture; today, the cool, wet, and wind of autumn. Has someone or some event stolen your warmth? Do you find it harder to meet new people because your past is littered with incidents of: confidence scams, threats, intimidation, and even physical abuse? Perhaps your past meetings have been difficult but not quite so serious as all of that. We all have faced ridicule, embarrassment, and scorn from those we have met, or even the loss of those we have met and come to love. At times it may seem better just to stop meeting new people or making new friends. The rewards of having a new friend may not seem to be worth the cost of what has and may happen to us. What has happened doesn't change, but our dwelling on it makes our adversary quite happy. What may happen is in God's hands, but we are too willing to visualize the potential bad things in our future. This also makes our adversary quite happy.
When going out, I often find a fear nagging at me. If I don't dwell on that fear, another one appears to take its place. I don't particularly want to dwell on this kind of thing in my mind, but it seems to come in waves like some kind of spiritual attack. Ah ha! I may be onto something there. I began to call it the fear du jour; as in: what is the fear du jour for this day? Yes, our adversary, who as Peter reminds us, stalks about like a roaring lion, does not want us to get out into his world.
Christians can become like a village in the bush that has been terrorized by lions too much. The villagers build a wall of thorns to keep the lions out, but succeed also in keeping themselves in. While the harvest rots in the fields, the terrified villagers hunker down inside their thorny wall. The Bible reminds us that God is our fortress, and we know that He is not stuck in one place. We are also to put on the full armor of someone. Body armor like a police officer might wear? Full military garb? No, you know that this is the full armor of God. Not only is God our fort, He also provides armor for us to stand guard, patrol, pray, read, write, speak, and to go out into enemy-held territory, whatever our calling is in Christ.
As you start a new workweek, know that God does not build a hedge about you to keep you in, but to provide a secure place to talk to Him and to learn from him. Our thorny place may keep the lion out, but unlike the poor villagers, it is not fixed in place and works no matter where we may find our calling leading us to in this world. We will find that attacks are battering at the hedge and our armor as we go forth to work on God's harvest.
Enjoy the coming of autumn!
Bucky
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