It blows my mind how faithful the Lord is to His children, especially when His children are wrapped up in their own flesh and insecurities. The Lord never gives up. For me, this past week has been a battle of hearing the Lord, but believing the enemy and his lies over me. Yet, the thing that amazes me is that the Lord continues to war over me in His pursuit for me to believe truth and love over lies and deceit. I act out in my flesh and my own worldy thinking, yet the Lord never gives up, even when it seems like I create for myself a lost cause.
The Lord delights in giving mercy. He loves to do His job. He created us as humans, knowing that we would be wrapped up in flesh and warred over spiritually all of our lives. But I personally believe that it just makes the Lord that much more impacted and excited when we truly do choose to look to Him...because it requires a choice for us to make, and when we choose the Lord, He is notbaly held in higher significance than any rival over our heart. And when the Lord is chosen over any other lie or attack disguised as momentary satisfaction, it becomes more natural for us to place Him on the throne of our hearts where He belongs.
We are called to be children of God; ones who walk out in radical authority, unhindered joy, undeniable love, and a capturing hope. If we go about our days and let the enemy get to us with his lies, we end up giving him too much credit, and then we naturally let our joy sink with our confidence. When we are depressed, something is wrong, because being a child of the Lord should cause us to be overwhelmed with a joy and love unspeakable...but it is our choice if we want to receive it or not.
I am not saying that our lives should be a joyous explosion of laughter and a constant goody-two-shoe type of feeling, but our lives should hold eternal perspective; that even in the midst of hardship and trial, we realize who we are in the Lord's eyes, and we begin to believe it enough to gain the confidence and strength for every moment. With the joy set before Him, He endured excrutiating suffering. With the joy set before us, we can live our lives as He intended us to.
