Transparency

Being a Christian isn't easy. You may have heard this cliche before. As much as I try not to use cliche's or euphemisms, they sometimes describe the simplest truth. At least, that is the case with me today.

One of the difficulties with being a Christian is trying to live consistently. Words must coincide with behaviors. Thoughts must coincidence with words, and feelings must coincidence with thoughts. Being congruent is the key to modeling an exemplary life. Doing the work instead of just spewing the Word.

I have always hesitated in sharing my stance on life simply because I never wanted to be one who preached the word but could not live the word. Some don't care about that symmetry but I do.

Yesterday I shared my feelings on the atrocities of this world. Then, today I feel lowly, lonely, and dubious. What could cause such a difference in a day? The enemy.

After staunchly purporting a position in Christ, the devil is likely to follow your rhetoric with a test of your true belief. This test usually reveals inconsistencies in the way one actually feels and what they believe and what they say they feel and believe. Failure in the testing of the spirit generally leads to a feeling and/or appearance of hypocrisy in the life of the speaker.

It is a sure fire way to affirm the non-believer's opinion that Christianity is little more than an excuse to judge others when pronunciations go unfollowed.

My goal with this blog is to epitomize the true life of a believer which showcases up and downs viewed through Christian lenses. Yesterday was an up moment. The prayer warrior was at attention, delivering a call to arms to combat the audacity the enemy displayed once again. That is as good as issuing a personal challenge to the enemy. Having the nerve to call him out for his tactics is cause for him to turn his attention to destroy a speaker's credibility through personal self-esteem or audience perspective.

In today's case, I have been reminded through a series of environmental experiences, unfamiliar and unexpected phone calls, and the necessary but unaffordable car repair due, not to mention the serious near miss on the highway this evening. This LACK brought down my spirits and of course dropped me into the reality of this natural world.

Now, mind off the spiritual, but on all of the obstacles of this life, doubt of how I could call for prayer when I need prayer emerges. How could I espouse such rhetoric about fighting in the spirit when I can't even control my experience in the natural.

After I prayed off the heaviness, I felt compelled to write about the situation. Praying is the key to shedding off the enemy's tactics. If you allow it to stay, it continues to permeate throughout your feelings, solidify as thoughts, which ultimately manifest as actions. This sequence, unmitigated, can lead to the harmful actions that people take.

This is a prime example of how the enemy keeps us stagnant and unable to seek Christ or move forward in our lives. He takes every opportunity to distract, demean, and ultimately destroy areas of strength and focus so that we may continue to flounder and spin our wheels in place.

God shows strong again, however; the devil's attack may have had me down for a moment but God stepped in and turned that attack into a lesson.

I strive to be transparent daily anyway. But I am overly committed to exposing the enemy in my life so that others may begin to recognize the presence of the enemy in their lives. Anyone who seeks Christ earnestly will start to recognize the patterns and tricks designed to hold them back. Once that starts to happen, the enemy's works will be exposed more often than not. Allowing people to make interventions which minimize damage. We all must take up this fight.

My goal is to send him back to hell, snapping his fingers, hanging his head, mad as hell, stating, "D... twarted again!"