14th day to PRAY for 2015! a prayer from Ron!

Have you ever had a day when every conversation and every effort – no matter how small or large – was met with opposition? For some of us, this may typify our days; for others we may be a bit out of practice on how to respond when dealing with opposing forces.

It’s so crazy, but I recall from my childhood having these kinds of days in school or on the practice field or with friends. It just seemed like nothing was going right. This really bothered me. So much so that I developed a strange coping mechanism based on superstition. Like, maybe if I wore my favorite clothes somehow that would avert the problems of the day. Of course this is absolute non-sense, right? But for a 10 year old with a slippery grasp of my own existence, much less an understanding of how the world stayed on its axis, this was an accessible philosophy to live by. But….and this is where things really cratered for me, what if I experienced challenges when I’m wearing that favorite shirt or shoes? What if I can’t live in control of the circumstances that surround me?

To this day, I am tempted to create a life in which I can control my circumstances. After years of repeated dead ends and disappointments in my professional career and personal desires, I got sick of being sick of it. It finally dawned on me that relative solutions (i.e. superstitions and my own effort) will fail me every time. I finally emptied myself of myself to my Creator and asked for His help.

The one true God of this universe has something to say to us about our efforts, and more importantly, about His power. It is absolute; it is inerrant and cuts through all the vanity of this world. Self-help authors and false religions have and will continue to hold out options. They will enable our self-worship and justify our sinful attempts, but it is just like the Turkish Delight candies offered by the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia. It is filth, a cancerous cavity. Not only does this life philosophy not satisfy, it leads into an adulterous relationship against our most beautiful bride.

Our Bride is for our best. (Bear with me, men, but our Bride is a masculine pronoun.) He is for our success. He has our back. His way, which at times may seem unconventional, wins. He wins. In days when we face strong opposition, our God is ready…He is waiting to work in us. He wants us to know that He is in the fight with us.

“For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you.” Deuteronomy 23:14

He is not waiving the white flag to pull us out; He’s not teaching us to tap our helmets to take a play off or bring in a substitute. He says that He will deliver your enemies to you. What do we do with our enemies once he brings them to us? We exact on them what God exacts on us. Mercy and grace. We live in front of them what He has done for us.

What a picture! Once I started to relent to the absolute truth that, as Karla so poignantly phrases it in the God Card #18 – “Gets the Knot Out,” I can now look forward to opposition. I can embrace it, because I don’t have to fear losing. I know that I am His, and He loves those who are opposed to me. And if it’s not a person that opposes me, but a situation or a project, He wants to show me traits in me that I need to give to Him. What a relief! My identity and sense of OK-ness doesn’t hinge on my circumstances.

Living with Him, putting my thoughts and desires in him, releasing my hang ups and other people’s flaws to Him…it really works! There’s no better way to live. So I can trust that the opposition that I have faced today will be tamed and delivered before me, not for my edification, but for God’s glory. Of course, I get wrapped up in the blessings and rewards of His glory, but my motivation is not for myself. I can rest tonight knowing that He is good to His word. It is absolute.

praying the power of this absolute truth for all of us . . . .