Taking The Hits
âBut his own people have been robbed and plundered, enslaved, imprisoned, and trapped. They are fair game for anyone and have no one to protect them, no one to take them back home.â Isa 42:22NLT
When weâre born again, we all start out on a very broad field at the foot of the cross. Salvation removes us from satanâs kingdomâ lost to him. Lifeâs game changes completely in satanâs rule book. Heâs no longer able to keep us from heaven, butâŚ..  he can try his best to keep us ineffective, and out of Godâs perfect will for our lives.
Hence, we become targets! In our walks with the Lord, weâve taken the hitsâ literally our home was robbed twice. God asked us to forgive the thieves. Louis was to the cleaners by cheating employers, loosing thousands. He suffered unable to do anything, in Gen 31:7NIV: ââŚhas cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me.â But like Jacob, he won because God has been our Helper and Support. These incidents were all warfareâ taking the hits from satan.
Since I began writing devotionals, Iâve been under one physical attack after another. What I write to you, Iâm practicing in real life.
Our Indiana preacher played a game Sunday morning with about fifteen of the congregation. The back of the church represented the place for newly saved people. There were six spaces down the aisle between the pulpit and the back door. Each space represented a level of salvation each person could come to in their walk with Jesus. The point of the game was to get to level seven, and stay thereâ Godâs perfect willâ without taking hits. Meanwhile the preacher was shooting off nerf bullets, as he represented satan. If a person took a hit, they had to go backwards one place. All those in the congregation represented the world.
Some rushed to the front to be hit over and over and end up going back to being only saved, where the bullets couldnât hit. Others hid behind the larger people to avoid taking hits. One kept his feet on the fourth level, but his body was hiding behind the chairs; having some of Jesus but keeping close touch in the world.
As the congregation watched they were laughing and heckling the ones whoâd chosen to participate. Suddenly, I realized this is an exact picture of the church. We didnât need the world picking on the body of Christ. The church participates very well in judging other believers who arenât just like them. God made us all unique in looks, and personalities, although there are many similarities. Yet we want to pound each other into a mold exactly like us. Why?
Watching this single sermon brought about a tremendous paradigm shift in Lou and Iâs thinking. Issues were resolved in a moment, as we realizedâ the issues werenât coming from people but from satan using people. To engage in the issues placed us as judgmental hecklers inside the church. Not a good place!
Can you visualize what Iâve said? Does it make sense? Isnât it better to pray for all other Christians around us? The last phrase of our text hit me in the face this morningâ âhave no one to protect them, no one to take them back home.â We canât take hits for others, but we can pray for their faith to endure. Thus, scripturally protecting and taking them home. Will you pray or judge and heckle? Itâs your choice. You choose.
PRAYER: Father God thank You a million times over for opening my eyes to seeing this warfare weâre in. Help everyone reading this to see as well and have a paradigm shift in their thinking, in Jesusâ name I pray.
by Debbie Veilleux Copyright 2017 You have my permission to reblog this devotional for others. Please keep my name with this devotional as author. Thank you.
