Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Choosing Your Battles, Is The Choice Really Yours?

My Utmost For His Highest

Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" —John 20:28

{CHAMBERS} “You shall be witnesses to Me…” (Acts 1:8). “That means lives of pure, uncompromising, and unrestrained devotion to the Lord Jesus, which will be satisfying to Him wherever He may send us. […] The goal of the call of God is His satisfaction, not simply that we should do something for Him. We are not sent to do battle for God, but to be used by God in His battles.”

{ELGIN}  Self-absorbed, we limit our service to the Lord.  We pick our battles rather than fight where the Lord sends us. I recall a quote from General George Patton, “I am a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.” (2 Timothy 2:4) “No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.” Whether in the military or as a Christian, we have sworn our allegiance to a higher authority.  That should mean that we serve in obedience to the commands we receive.

It has been almost a year and a half since we returned from Haiti. For 10 years we lived a different life.  Forsaking a comfortable lifestyle and serving others being our primary purpose. It is amazing how easy it is to slip back into a comfortable lifestyle. Letting the demands of living in abundance take on a prominence in our lives that has been absent for so many years.  We still serve the Lord, but the intensity of that service has changed. The things of this world can be intoxicating.  They can cause well-intentioned Christians to abandon their devotion to the Lord and, instead, give their devotion to financial security, a lack of physical want, a life of relative ease. Are there battles that you have said you would not fight?  In the Army if you intentionally miss a deployment there are severe consequences.  Be careful you don’t let “civilian affairs” entangle you and cause you to miss the Lord’s call. To wherever that may be.

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