Surrendering In Secret

Satan was defeated in Gethsemane. 

Many Christians understand Satan’s defeat as happening when Jesus died on the cross. But the truth is, that Satan was already defeated before a nail ever pierced my Lord’s blessed hand. Oswald Chambers says, “Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world.” The cross was the physical carrying-out of what had already taken place between Christ and the Father the night before in Gethsemane. 

That night, Jesus didn’t wrestle the dragon of Satan. He wrestled the dragon of “self.” He faced the full-force of temptation to acquiesce to His own will. I don’t know the full extent of what Christ experienced that night, but I do know that it was the sinful desire of human autonomy that He overcame. Chambers says, “I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul…Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won.”

The night of Gethsemane, Jesus asked the Father three times to consider His own will: “Let this cup pass from Me.”  Each time He asked, He also acknowledged that the Father’s will looked different from His own: “Yet not as I will, but as You will.” There is a great struggle here that often goes overlooked. A struggle Jesus warns His own disciples about: “Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” That night, Jesus Himself experienced a willing spirit struggling under the weight of fleshly weakness. But the next day, His victory was shown on the cross in full view of the world. 

O Lord, may we allow Your Spirit within us to overcome all temptations of the flesh, especially the temptation to do as we will, rather than what You will. 

(Gal 5:24,25) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit.

(Rom 6:6) We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

(Col 2:13-15 NLT) You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

A Time For Silence

“But Jesus gave no answer, not even to a single charge…” (Matt 27:14)

There is a saying: “You do not have to attend every argument you are invited to.” If there is one thing I have learned about my humanity, it is that my flesh much prefers arguing, more so than silently allowing someone to be wrong. No doubt, we must not be silent in proclaiming the glories of the Lord or in sharing the spiritual morsels we are given by Him. But at some point in our spiritual maturity, we will have to learn how to allow God to expose someone’s heart…and remain silent as He works. 

Often times, God will expose someone’s heart through their argument. Spiritual blindness and deafness must be exposed before they can be dealt with. And once exposed, Jesus only ministered to those who realized they were blind and deaf. For those who accepted the truth of the state of their own heart, the Lord poured out Himself and His wisdom to them from an overflowing cup. For those who didn’t, He said, “Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

There is a time to speak and a time to be silent, and discernment between the two must be given by the Lord. There are times I’ve had to ask myself if I trusted the Lord enough to allow someone to be wrong? It may seem like a silly question, but it boils down to whether we truly trust in God’s sovereignty? Do we trust God enough to watch individuals, nations, cultures, and systems self-destruct, because we understand that God is the one shaking them and exposing them…

…and we need only to remain silent while He works. 

(Eccl 3:1,7) To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: …A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silent, and a time to speak;

 

(Prov 17:27,28) The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered. Even a fool is considered wise if he keeps silent, and discerning when he holds his tongue.

(Matt 26:62,63) Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent.

(Heb 12:26,27) At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.”The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

Same As The Shirt

“Momma, am I brave and kind?”

I pulled this shirt out for my daughter to wear the other afternoon. When she saw “Brave and Kind” printed on the front, she hesitated before putting it on. She looked up at me while holding it in her hand, and asked if she reflected the qualities she was about to advertise on her shirt.  

After I assured my daughter that she was indeed brave and kind and that it was safe for her to put on a shirt that said so, I began to think of this in a spiritual context. I began to contemplate our tendency to wear “shirts” that say we belong to Christ, but live as if we have no concern about living up to what that should actually look like. 

My baby didn’t want to wear that shirt if it wasn’t true. She didn’t want to walk around with something that said she was brave and kind, if she did not live up to those things. It meant something to her to wear a shirt that communicated she was a person of a certain integrity. It meant something to her to be what her shirt said she was. 

O Lord, may it mean something to us too. 

(Rom 13:13,14) Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in quarreling and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

(1 Pet 4:3) For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.

(Luke 11:39,40) “Now then,” said the Lord, “you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the One who made the outside make the inside as well?”

All Things

I prayed over these eggs today. 

It may seem like a silly, pointless thing to pray about when there is suffering and war and the crushing tide of wickedness to pray about. But there is life in those eggs and life is valuable, because all life came from God Himself. My eyes —still swollen from praying about all the big things this morning— closed, as I laid my hands on these incubators and prayed for the little things.

I prayed that my little ducks would make it. That they would not die in their shell because they didn’t have the strength to make it out. I prayed that my turkey eggs were by some miracle fertile, despite the fact that the turkeys who laid them continually avoided the one who could make them fertile. And in that moment, I thought about how those prayers could easily be the very same prayers I could pray for the church. 

More times than I can recount, God has used the little things to teach me about the big things. He has used the mundane to teach me of the magnificent, and the overlooked things to teach me of the things that must be overcome. He is in every moment, every step, every breath. He is with us when we pour out our tears in prayer over the big things, and He is with us when we— with swollen eyes— whisper our prayers over the little things. 

Father, we praise You this morning for Your faithfulness. We thank You that You remain with us in all things, whether great or small. 

(Ps 66:17-20) I cried out to Him with my mouth and praised Him with my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; But truly God has listened; He has attended to the voice of my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

(1 John 5:14,15) This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him.

(Ps 89:1,2) I will sing of the loving devotion of the LORD forever; with my mouth I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.

In All Things

I used to wonder if there was something wrong with me when people would say, “You can’t love Jesus without loving other people.” And I would think to myself, “Wanna bet?”

One thing I learned from the pastor I discipled under for years, who taught me things about ministry that you simply can’t learn from a book, is that people are messy. But God isn’t afraid to get His hands dirty and reach into their mess and pull them out. Our job is to surrender our own notions about what “ministry” should look like, and allow the Lord to work through us in whatever mess someone may be in, to be used by Him to show them the way out. My flesh resists that, as my reasoning screams, “It’s not my job to save someone!.. I can’t fix someone else’s mess!” And both of those things are true, but being used by the Lord comes down to the question: Do I trust God?

Do I trust the Lord to guide me into someone’s dungeon so I can help lead them out of it? Because people in a dungeon need a light. They need a torch bearer— not more lashings upon their back about why they ended up in that dungeon in the first place. So, I have to constantly ask myself, “Do I trust God? Do I reeeeally trust Him in all things?” And to be flat-out honest, my answer has been a heart-breaking “No,” more times than I care to admit. 

I would reason within myself that I DO, in fact, trust God— it’s just other people I don’t trust. Or myself I don’t trust. But trust in God “in all things” necessarily includes my trust that He is bigger than all our untrustworthiness. I have had to learn that our ability to love others the way we’re supposed to, involves learning how to invest our trust in the right person, which is God Himself, regardless of our own or anyone else’s stumbling. 

O Father, forgive me for my lack of trust in You. Guide us in Your truth and faithfulness and lead us, as we shine Your light into the darkest dungeons to set the prisoners free.  

(Psalm 40:1,2) I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

(Luke 4:17-18) …the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

(Rom 10:14,15) How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

(Matt 5:14,15) You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

A Wish For What He Wants

“Mommy, make a wish…”

I went for a walk to the pond yesterday with my seven year-old daughter. As we walked, she picked a dandelion and said, “Mommy, make a wish!” I asked, “Can I say my wish out loud?” She said, “Yes.” So I closed my eyes and blew as hard as I could on the dandelion fluff and said, “I wish Jesus would come back soon.” When we started to walk again, she said, “Well, maybe He will.” Then I asked her, “What’s the first thing you’d say to Him when you see Him?” And she replied matter-of-factly, “I’d rub His feet.” 

In my mind, I was thinking about all the questions I’d ask Him. In her mind, she wasn’t thinking about what she would ask at all, but about what she would do. Humbly amused, I inquired, “You’d rub His feet?” And she answered, “Yeah, because I think He’d like that. I wanna do what He wants.” 

I’m sure if we were asked, most of us would probably say the first thing we’ll do when we see Jesus, is fall at His feet in worship. And maybe that’s true. I don’t know. But in that moment, all I knew was that I wanted that dandelion back. All I knew was that I wanted to make another wish. A wish that wasn’t about what I wanted, but about what He wanted. 

O Lord, may the longing of our heart be about what You want, more than what we want. 

(John 6:38) For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.

(John 8:28,29) When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him.

(John 13:13-15) You call Me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, because I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example so that you should do as I have done for you.

Trust Through Failure

“Mommy, I know how to do it now.”

She didn’t, of course, but I had to let her try. I had to let her see that she couldn’t. She had an idea of what to do, but I had to allow her to attempt an execution of what she thought she knew. And I had to allow her to fail. It was the only way for her to comprehend her lack of understanding. 

Understanding is not gained by making the right choice all the time. We do not gain spiritual enlargement because we always have perfect execution of what we think we know. The gamut of “knowing” spans in both directions from center— one way delving into the abyss of failure, the other way reaching toward the mountains of success. Complete understanding is comprehension of both. 

On my desk calendar, I have written at the bottom corner, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.” Each day I read it and consciously put my trust in Him, whether my day is a success or failure. Each day, I trust in His knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, rather than my own. Because each day, whether success or failure, the overcomer trusts in the Lord through both.

O Lord, let the land be covered in still and resolute trust in You, as the quiet, gentle dew covers the ground in the morning.

(Prov 3:5,6 AMP) Trust in and rely confidently on the LORD with all your heart And do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will make your paths straight…

(Jer 1:11,12) And the word of the LORD came to me, asking, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” “I see a branch of an almond tree,” I replied. “You have observed correctly,” said the LORD, “for I am watching over My word to accomplish it.”

(1 John 5:3,4) For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome, because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.