“Keneta vs the Red Baron: The Battle Continues”
I’m clinging to God in the midst of this ongoing nightmare battle, clinging like Mary Magdalene, finding my strength and peace in Him, in His Word, knowing and believing that yes, God can and does do the impossible; knowing and believing that yes, He does know the plans He has for me (Jeremiah 29:11) and for everyone else. Knowing, believing, clinging to the fact that the battle is His, not mine. Last night I remembered something Beth Moore said in my “Breaking Free” daily devotional: “When we start feeling weary, we’re probably taking on too much of the battle ourselves.” I’m now turning even more to 2 Chronicles 20:9; 15-17 because He is right: the battle is His, not mine. He has his battle plans, and they are for me, not against me. My Bibles, pens, journals and Bible studies have become extensions of me, much like Edward Scissorhands going about slicing his way through bushes. As I write this, I am looking at the cartoon sticker I placed at the top of the page: Snoopy as a fighter pilot on the top of his dog house in imaginary battle against the Red Baron. Aren’t we all Snoopy fighter pilots going into our battles each day and night, sitting atop our dog houses as we stare and glare at the world through the goggles of our minds? Ah, but the battles truly are God’s to fight. We only have to surrender them into God’s hands and allow Him to receive the glory. Elisabeth Elliot said, “If my life is surrendered to God, all is well. Let me not grab it back as though it were in peril in His hand but would be safer in mine!” Why do we continue to grab it back, grab it back, grab it back as if we can do something about it? Peace is found in surrender, and we must wave the white flag sometime in the midst of the battle. We cannot continue the battle on our own, for it will break us if we do. And so let each of us toss aside our goggles, come down off the roofs of our dog houses and wave our white flags of peace, knowing and believing that God will take care of the Red Baron in His own way. After all, the battle is His, not ours’.
abundantlypardoned 