We snacked, talked, drank coffee, and worshipped before she told us what was on her heart. She said she felt like we needed a "come to Jesus" meeting. She asked each of the elders to pray before coming and to share what was on their hearts. What each one spoke about was so different, yet flowed together perfectly on what we were about to hear and what I needed to hear.
One young lady stood up and shared what was on her heart and she mentioned the word indignation. We looked up the word and the definition said 'a just anger, anger from something that is unfair.' She asked why as a society of women who chase Jesus were we not more indignant to what goes on around us. She called it a righteous anger. We are fully aware of what is right and wrong yet feel powerless to do anything, and that is a lie! Our anger should spur us forward to stand up against what the enemy has planned to harm us. I love that!!
Our pastor's wife asked us to look at Galatians 5:1. It says "It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Stand firm, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery." And in verse 13 it says "You were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; but rather serve one another in love." She then skipped down to verse 17 "For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit..." and then verse 19 "The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like..." She then asked us to look at our homes and see if any of the above areas were present and asked us to get indignant towards the enemy trying to break up families. She then turned to Jeremiah 2. The passage starts out with Isreal as the Bride of Christ, as we are. This passage, and many others in the Bible always refer to Isreal as a "she", but in verse 14 the "she" turned to a "he". She asked us why. No one really had an answer and hers was quite eye opening. She is said the "she" turned to "he" because Isreal lost her identity. And that's why we were there. She feels like the God following woman has lost her identity.
She then made us visualize a straight line with a dot in the center. The dot being promises and how Satans's promises look identical to God's promises; love, prosperity, acceptance, health, etc... But at the center there is a choice to be made; go left or go right. One way leads to death and one way leads to life. Of course, we want life, so we start down that path and the road is narrow and hard, with not too many people on it. The other was is death, but it's wide and easy and lots of people are on it. And all too often we take the easy way, which we know leads to death and destruction. She gave some examples that I thought were so helpful in just the daily struggle to choose life or death and how lies often tempt us to choose death, even when we know better. She said that she had the opportunity to get really jealous last week as a circumstance came up in her marriage. She said she heard God ask, "life or death" She choose life and talked to her husband calmly about her feelings and the husband clarified and reassured her and in the end, her own baggage and lies from the enemy had distorted things that were not even there to begin with. Had she acted out of her fleshly desire of jealousy she said it probably would have caused a fight and a wedge between them. What a practical way to check yourself daily as areas arise that fall into the Galatians 5:19 category to see if you are acting out of the flesh or the Spirit!! Last night there was a huge cross, some nails and hammers, and paper and pens for everyone to write down what area of our lives we needed to nail to the cross for Jesus to free us from so we could return to our true identity.
As I have been put back into the role of wife I have felt that burden for a perfect family creep back in my mind. When it was just me and the boys it seemed easy. I can control myself and because they are were so small I could control them, so I felt like we were in a good place. But now they are older and now there are more children and a husband and unless we are all seeking the Lord, it doesn't run smoothly. And unfortunately, I can only control me in that area! I know all I can do is pray, model and instruct with kindness, but most of the time I feel like I need to 'do something', if that makes sense, and that is not freedom! So I nailed my fleshly desires to the cross in prayer that I will remember who He created me to be and with the freedom that His grace is sufficient when I fall short.
