(II) Active in Battle - Part 1

We need to understand the essence of passivity, as explained in a previous post. (Passive in battle, 21st July)
Why? 
So that we can practice ourselves first, and then our children, or others who need help, to use our thoughts and all our faculties constructively, according to the principles of Gods Word.

Let’s be practical and try for example Heb 12: 1-8:

:1  Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

:2  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

:3  Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

:4  In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Let’s write down all the exhortations/commands (DO-this, DON’T DO this) in a list and start practicing/obeying them.

1. DO’s

1.1 Lay aside every weight

#  What weighs me/my child down?

An honest, intelligent and prayerful search is needed here. List them all.

#  Why does each of these listed items weigh me/my child down? Is it for example a sin? a wound/sorrow? a temptation? affliction?, etc? This determines whether I should repent, resist, accept, be comforted etc.

#  Where do I lay these weights aside?

At the cross, where Jesus bore each one of these things for me and freed me up to be occupied with Him and his course, where the race mentioned next, has to be run.

1.2 In like manner lay aside every (known) sin that clings so closely

#  What does that mean?

Face my sin, admit it as sin, repent of it and stop doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is possible through the crucified and resurrected Savior.

#  What does repentance mean?
"The Lexicon says the Latin word has the thought 'to recover one's senses' and come to a 'right understanding'. So repentance describes on the one hand first a 'change of mind', to be accompanied by a change of heart." ** : 
This is exactly what my child too, needs to understand and face and work on. I need to explain to him/her : What you did here, is wrong because it is sin, according to Gods standards. Your sin and my sin are equally bad and evil before God, therefore we must change our thinking about wanting to do it. So let us ask Jesus to help us to change our thoughts about it and help us to not do it again. In this way we ask Him to clean our hearts/lives and give us a new way of conduct/behaving ourselves.
  

One of the most relevant and practical definitions of repentance I’ve ever come across, I found in the vibrant, intelligent and challenging story of Rosaria :

 “How could I and everyone that I knew and loved be in sin? In this crucible of confusion, I learned something important. I learned the first rule of repentance: that repentance requires greater intimacy with God than with our sin… (emphasis added) Repentance requires that we draw near to Jesus, no matter what. And sometimes we all have to crawl there on our hands and knees. Repentance is an intimate affair. And for many of us, intimacy with anything is a terrifying prospect.” *** 

No wonder  we learn from verse 4 the following : we haven't come close to the point of shedding our blood in an attempt to change our minds and hearts!  

1.3 Run with endurance the race that is set before you

#  What! An endurance-race?? 
"That’s not what I signed up for!”, you may say.

 Jesus endured the cross, and the shame, and the hostility of sinners against Himself.
 In an intimate relationship with Him, that is exáctly what we have signed up for. We signed up for following in His footsteps, remember? That implies similar obstacles in the race for us : a cross, self-denial, shame, hostility, adversity...oh my! We forgot to count this cost, and to teach this to our children! 

#  Why?

Because we tend to ignore these facts in our own race and prefer believing in and waiting for fairy tales to come true : after the temporary battle was won, they lived happily ever after...
No. I must help my child to understand this is not easy. It is a struggle, a fight. But we are going to fight this good fight and win this enemy. We are going to consider what thoughts are underlying this behavior, so that we can throw them out.

We want to disconnect ourselves from these bad thoughts which lead us to do these sinful things, so that we can be connected much more closely with Jesus. 

This  brings us to our next DO

1.4 Look to Jesus…consider Him

#  Where is He now?

 Having reached the joy that was set before Him, He is now ‘seated at the right hand of the throne of God'!
What a destiny!

#  Why should we look to and consider Him?

So that we may not grow weary or fainthearted.

#  When we get weary/fainthearted : what do we do? What should we do?
Get absorbed in self-examination? in self-pity? in a search for excuses? or for other people?  

No. If these could have helped, it would have, long ago, as we have been trying them for ages already, haven’t we?

Instead of being self-absorbed, we must actively start focusing on Jesus and what He has done for and expects of us. We should just keep on looking at Him, until His loveliness penetrates our being and we want to be nowhere else but with Him, like Him…

Can we present Him like this to our children?

Can we talk about Him for 5 minutes straight? Tell our children how extremely lovely He is, how lovable and adorable and desirable and worthy of everything? Can we give our children a true, Biblical picture of  the real Jesus? Not if we don't know Him like that ourselves!

#  He shows us HOW. 
Only in keeping our gaze on Jesus, watching Him closely, we can see what He did in the face of adversity. Thén we can follow His example - actively.

Think of it : I am CALLED to DEMONSTRATE something of Jesus, my Savior – not to demonstrate my own hopelessness AS IF  this calling is of no relevance until I ‘feel better’. At least I know there is hope in Jesus, even if I can't see it at the moment!. Shouldn't I then rather demonstrate that hope in Him? Yes, if I believe in the truth of it.

This calling should be my motivation in my endeavors to stop preoccupation with and consciousness of SELF, and start being preoccupied with and conscious of HIM.

He is worth it, isn’t He?

And to us, this is a profoundly elevated position to which we have probably never given much or any thought. 

**     Jessie Penn Lewis : "The Battle for the Mind", p 7/8
***    Rosaria Champagne Butterfield : The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, p 21/22


(To be continued...)