Everything To Stand – Part 4
January 21, 2010Pastoral Counsel – Jen Miller
Crisis: 309.712.5149
Appointment: jen@sara-ministry.com
Jen is a…
Part 4: Continuing study of Ephesians 6:13-14
“…and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm…”
Please… do not underestimate the power or purposes of the Creator of the Universe, the ONE true and LIVING GOD.
Please… do not negate Him and your personal relevance to HIM in this raging war He is leading in this thing called ‘life’.
Please…do not underestimate or negate the certain judgment we individually will face before Him regarding our daily, personal choices and how those choices have either been for Him or against Him.
If choices and actions begin with a ‘thought’ – and they do! – where are we to begin individually with our personal choices to be ‘for’ God or ‘against’ Him? With Romans 12:2…
“Be transformed by the RENEWING of your mind.”
HOW?
1. Live CONSCIOUS of EVERY thought – “taking EVERY thought captive.” 2 Corinthians 10:5
2. Read, study, know, and practice the LIVING WORD of God with EVERY thought, decision, action, with EVERY person you come into contact with – even briefly – and in EVERY circumstance. 2 Timothy 2:15
3. Live in constant conversation / relationship with God through prayer. (The word ‘pray’ appears 73 times in the New Testament alone. NIV)
I love how Coach Mark changed the phrase ‘pay attention to God’ to:‘pray attention to God’. How right-on this statement is.
A ‘relationship’ with God is NOT about an obligatory or guilt-initiated, or even self-desired 10 minutes or 30 minutes we may choose to spend time with him in prayer or His Word. It’s about our 24/7 ‘communication’ in ‘relatonship’ with HIM, and our 24/7 ‘consciousness’ to ‘carrying out’ His principles and promises with every thought, decision, action, interaction, reaction, with every person who comes into our life, in every relationship we have (even momentary ones), in every circumstance and situation (even the most mundane).
Just as Coach Mark challenged us to stop being “bench warmers”, and “get in the game,” Coach Bob echoed this challenge, as I do. Either we’re for God 24/7 or we’re not. Either we’re active for God or we’re not.
I challenge you to get up if you’re down in spirit or unmotivated for the cause of Christ. (I’m not talking to those active warriors who are taking a temporary rest for refueling. Even Jesus did that and encourages us to do the same.) If you’re down in spirit or unmotivated for the cause of Christ, I challenge you to dig deep within, pull yourself up by your boot straps if that is what’s needed, and be pro-active for the cause of Christ, doing your part to WAR in the spiritual battle.
DO EVERYTHING (the Word indicates in our Ephesians 6 study), to equip yourself to ‘STAND FIRM’ in who GOD PURPOSED YOU TO BE in carrying outyour responsibility in this spiritual war. If you don’t know who that ‘you’ is, I challenge you to be pro-active to find out who God created YOU to be.
“…when you have done everything to stand. Stand FIRM then….”
There are two key words in this instruction to you and me:
Stand and Everything [all]
God’s directive to “STAND” indicates a choice in our spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical posture. His directive to ‘STAND’ indicates one is either in a lying, kneeling, sitting, or downward posture, and also an encouragement when one is growing weak in standing and about to fall. We need HIS fortification to have the ability to continue to stand on His principles and promises, which brings us back to look at this phrase ‘when you have done EVERYTHING to stand’. But first you must GET UP and STAND if you’re not already and you desire to choose to be obedient to our God.
Once standing, the instruction to “STAND FIRM then” is indicative of our ABILITY to ‘remain’ standing spiritually, emotionally, and mentally and not be moved or fall from the purposes in which He has positioned us in the spiritual war. His purpose? To SERVE HIM and OTHERS through Him in this battle.
The place He has designed for you to be active in STANDING to fight in this spiritual war is EVERYWHERE YOU SET FOOT: at home, school, work, church, Wal-Mart, restaurants, market, vacations, in the car, on the bus, in an airplane, at the doctor and dentist, the vet, the service station… any and every place where you are at any given time, for any given reason where there are PEOPLE. Our God is no respector of person or place. His work is needed EVERYWHERE at EVERY MOMENT. Even where there are NO people, you still have a choice to STAND by 1) being a person of integrity, and 2) by taking those quiet opportunities to grow stronger in your communication with HIM and be reinforced and refueled by HIM for the next going out to people in your everyday life. How? Prayer, reading the Word, practicing scripture memory, listening to Christian talk radio and music, etc..
Am I suggesting we never kick back and have some fun or rest? No! These are essential to the refreshing and refueling we need. I am talking about a life-stle change if GOD and His principles and promises are not at the center of your heart, your thoughts, your decisions, your actions 24/7.
In closing and in readiness for part 5, let’s look at this excerpt again.
“…and when you have done everything to stand,” indicates a practice ofpurposed preparation we must take to ensure we will be ‘able’ to ‘stand firm’.
What does life present day in and day out in ‘every place’ where we find ourselves – at any given moment – that necessitates a choice to either obey God’s directive to “stand” on His principles and promises or not in this 24/7 spiritual war we live in?
Check out Part 5…
Joy Copyright 2010 Jen Miller – All Rights Reserved
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