Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Scripture- “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”- 2 Corinthians 10:4
Thought of the Day- According to the dictionary the term stronghold means the following: a place that has been fortified so as to protect it against attack or a place where a particular cause or belief is strongly defended or upheld. This term can be used in many different contexts such as military strongholds, political strongholds or ideological strongholds. But from a biblical context it has a deeper meaning. Strongholds represent the areas of our life where our pride is clinging to control. These are parts of our life which we have not fully relinquished over to the control of God. These are the areas that are so hard to let go of because they are of “the world,” “man-centered,” and “proud” areas that the enemy uses to set up pretensions against the authority of God in our lives. These are areas where we have erected fortresses of pride around our hearts that keep God from penetrating, much to our own detriment. What are some of these areas in your life? For me, they are so granular and hard to untangle sometimes, but I do know they exist because they cause friction in my faith walk. They include things like wanting to maintain a semblance of being in control especially around finances. They also include lustful thoughts, and my beliefs and plans themselves, which are only a heartbeat away from being irrelevant. As a Pastor friend of mine once told me: “Want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans.”
But maybe the biggest stronghold in my life is I have always liked options. I want choices. Choices make me feel like I am in control, be it on the menu of a restaurant, a career, or how I am going to live my life. But too many choices can lead to paralysis in God’s Kingdom plan for us and so for our benefit, he puts in borders and boundaries. It sounds innocuous on the surface, but when it comes to deep faith, the only option is to follow God’s plan, even when we may not understand it, agree with it or want to participate in it. This where obedience comes in and where we must be “doers of God’s word, not just hearers of God’s word.” James 2:14 says it this way: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?”
This is the serious part of Christianity where we must literally learn to die to ourselves and our understanding in order to be set free. Luke 9:23-25 says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? This is a very hard and constant struggle as it is diametrically opposed to everything our flesh yearns for and all that the world teaches us. Many of these thought processes have been embedded in us since childhood, and thus they are strongholds that are hard to eradicate. The ultimate goal is to get to a place like Paul did in his faith where in Philippians 1:21 he was able to proclaim “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Even reading that may make you very uncomfortable. If so, it may be another sign of a stronghold that is in desperate need of being removed. In God’s kingdom plan, there is only one way, and it is His way, not ours. Until we fully embrace that, we will never truly be set free. Trust me, I know. I struggle with it every day of my life.
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