Untied Relationships

 

If I was the enemy of mankind, what might be one strategy I would use against them to bring about their defeat?

Satan uses many tactics against us, like fear and intimidation, lies about God, lies about us, our worth.…

But let’s face it, if he could take us out, he would have already.

Then this thought crossed my mind.

“I’d untie their relationships!”

When one enters a relationship with an abusive, controlling significant other, one thing they’ll do is try to cut off the other relationships in your life. They don’t want you to have someone else to turn to.

Though we don’t consider ourselves to be in a relationship with Satan, he’s constantly trying to forge his way into one with us. Those especially susceptible are those who don’t believe he’s real.

He must laugh at the way we think we’re the ones in control.

He’s been around longer than we have. He’s seen you grow up, he knows your likes and dislikes, your fears and insecurities, your areas of special pride. In short, he knows how to tempt and influence you and what snares to put in your path.

Look at all the broken relationships around you. There’s brokenness between parents and their children or grandchildren, between husbands and wives, between childhood friends, between business associates who could’ve done great things together.

When walking and holding hands with a small child who cannot yet appreciate the dangers of this world, we can guide them around the potholes of life, tugging them gently (or wildly if necessary) away from the shifting ground.

But Satan doesn’t want that child to hold your hand. He doesn’t want them to be safely guided by someone who knows the ropes.

He doesn’t want you to hold on to your heavenly Father’s hand, either.

He wants you to fall into the pitfalls and traps he’s set for you.

He wants you to listen to his lies and to hear his voice above the others in your life.

He wants to sabotage and untie the relationships in your life.

You may think you self-sabotage; but who planted the lies in front of you to affect your thinking and influence your choices?

I’m not saying we should blame the enemy for all the failures in our lives. At some point, we need to take responsibility for our decisions and suffer the consequences.

But there are reasons we chose the choices we’ve made; not excuses, but reasons.

Satan loves to dip his finger into every pot of soup we make. And his fingers are DIRTY! He’s coated them with the poison of his lies.

God created us. He created us to need Him – and to need each other.

Satan seeks to untie your good relationships, especially your relationship with God.

Once the knot is untied, where does that leave you? What does it leave you thinking and believing about yourself and others? Does it make you trust yourself and others less? Does it make you trust God less? Might it even make you angry with God?

That’s his goal.

If Satan leaves your relationships alone, perhaps they’re unhealthy relationships that he can use to your destruction.

Jesus Himself said, Satan, our common enemy, comes to steal, kill and destroy. While He [Jesus] comes that you may have life and live it to the fullest! (John 10:10)

What good relationships in your life have been unraveled?

Even if you think they can’t be restored, God’s thoughts are greater than ours. (Isaiah 55:9)

Align yourself with God’s ways of thinking, with His written Word.

It’s time to forge new, strong, healthy relationships with the people we love – and new people God is bringing into our lives. This might require a lot of forgiveness toward others, and even toward ourselves. We’ll ponder forgiveness another day…

 

Flooding

(Video courtesy of Kurt Van Tassel, via Facebook.)

A word picture came to mind this morning while Pastor prayed; that of a book, the Word of God, pouring it’s Living Water into our lives. I could imagine the River of Life pouring through an open Bible into my life. That River can’t pour out to overflowing into my life unless I open the Book and apply it to my life. Images of an overflowing creek or river immediately correspond to video footage of the flooding that had washed through our community lately, causing severe damage with their sensational force.

 

Nature’s riverbeds wind where they may; their paths created by the curve of the land; destruction caused by flooding is without discretion or choosing, plowing through everything in it’s way. The abundance of the River of Life flows through our hearts, destroying only that which hinders our oneness with God; those things that draw us away from Him or distract us from His plans for our lives.

 

Once again I’m pulled into the knowledge of the worth of God’s Word in my life, a life not left to chance; a life with God-given purpose and value. Without God’s Word to teach us of our worth, we are easily fooled into believing the lie that we’re not wanted, needed or valued; only used and abused and quickly forgotten.

 

Since God’s Word is readily available to us (here in America) we have no excuse for not feeding from it daily. Yet, often, we starve ourselves spiritually, while going to extremes to over-consume empty calories in attempt to satisfy the longings of our soul (our mind, will and emotions).

 

If it appears that I beat this “dead-horse” to dust, I’m preaching more to myself than to any reader that stumbles across this blog. Considering God’s Word “optional” in my life is to admit to complete ignorance in regard to life itself. Only laziness, disregard for His Word and lack of faith IN His Word can explain my lack of gleaning from it daily. God forgive me!

 

(Photo courtesy of thetruthunderfire.com)

 

Revelation 22:1-5  Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (NIV)

 

Isaiah 59:19  When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. (KJV)

Unsettling Vision

I shared this with a dear friend the other day, and thought I’d share it with you, too.

Years ago I had a vision of a little girl, maybe 9 or 10 years old. She was huddled in the hallway of a ghetto building I apparently helping a woman move from. We carried boxes down stairs and saw her in underneath the steps too afraid to even cry. She’d been violated and was badly hurt. I wept for her and held her in my arms. I was angry at the boy that did this to her. I wanted him to pay, I wanted him to die. I was then whisked away to the top of a fence overlooking a nearby ghetto neighborhood. I was standing on a pipe. Two women approached me, wearing colorful skirts, but naked to the waist, one with a child on her hip. They asked why I stood on the water pipe, insisting that I was going to break it. They told me that this pipe was their lifeline – and if I remained on it and it broke, they would die.

I looked out into the nasty apartments, clotheslines strewn from one to another sporting dingy clothes not worth washing. The wall to the apartment complex disappeared and I could see into the apartments. There he was; the boy that had trashed the little girl in the stairwell. My anger flared when I saw him. A big man with a shirtless pot belly was beating the boy with a cord or belt. His screams were blood-curdling. At first I thought, “Good, he deserves it! How did the man know what the boy had done already?” But then I noticed a half dressed, heavy set woman smoking a cigarette and laughing at the boy. Somehow I knew that his beating was for her sexual pleasure. I grieved for the boy and longed to take him in my arms and hold him like I had the little girl, but couldn’t get to him.

The topless women still beckoned me to get off the pipe before it broke. I climbed down and they hugged me.

 

I’m not sure what the whole vision means. But I know there’s healing in it for me, and perhaps for you. I know the water in the pipeline is the life-giving Living Water that only Jesus can provide..... Can you lend insight?

Romans 3:10 - As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one…” (NKJV)