make war!

"the only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all out war. i hear so many christians, murmuring about their imperfections and their failures and their addictions and their short-comings, and i see so little war! 'murmur, murmur, murmur... Why am I this way?' MAKE WAR! if you wonder how to make war, go to the Manual! don't just bellyache about your failures, MAKE WAR! there is something about war that sharpens the senses...there is something about war that keeps [you] vigilant...violence against whom or what? not other people. not other people. not other people...not atheists. not nominal christians. but, on every impulse in our soul to be violent to other people...setting in with sin-make war on that! enslaving desires...make war!" -john piper!

it seems like a lot of the time we do exactly this. we sit around and murmur and complain about the sins we are entangled in, about how we cannot seem to have victory over them, and then as soon as the coffee is finished and the conversation ends, we move on and never make war. we are so not called to complacency, rather we are called to fight. philippians 2:12b&13 tells us to "work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." yes, everything is by God's good grace, but we cannot expect to show-up sanctified merely by sitting on our behinds and practicing laziness, apathy, hypocrisy, selfishness, complacency, wasting time, perfecting tetris (don't ask me what i have done on and off all night, i'm guilty!), etc. we are called to work out our salvation. to be prepared to do the work Christ has in store for us. we cannot do that if we're lying around in sin and not bothering to do anything about it. we cry out for change, and then cry when it doesn't happen. mystery? not so much. this is more rambling than anything else, but i have really been challenged lately to make war against the things that distract me from Christ, and i wish it would not have taken me twenty-one years to realize how essential this practice is. making war is more than just talking about our struggles (although that does have its time and place), it is going to a solid church, actively seeking out time to spend in worship (corporate or individual), reading the Word every day, and spending time in prayer.

just my two cents worth.

love,

m.

"i can't endure this life without Your wisdom being heard."

-background

--lecrae