Long winded answer....

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I promised Jessica that I'd expound a bit on some thoughts I posted in Hard Questions last week; specifically, about 'not loving our lives to the death' being one of the weapons in the hands of believers.

That thought came from Revelations 12:
Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (verses 10-11, NIV)

Three things are required for us to overcome the enemy -- the blood of Jesus, the word of testimony, and not allowing the fear of death to cause us to recant either one.

There are times when God allows the enemy to take the life of those who truly follow God and put their trust in Him. Job's children come to mind first...all ten of them. David's son, for whom he prayed and fasted, died (I don't think that was a punishment, but I'll save the reasons why for another day). In Hebrews 11, we are reminded of Others [who] were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated -- the world was not worthy of them. (vs. 35b- 38a, NIV).

There were times in Jesus' ministry when he healed every sick person; there were times when he healed only a few...or even just one... among many. Sometimes it was because of the lack of faith in the people; but other times he healed where no faith was evident (the cripple by the pool of Bethesda comes to mind).

Yet, the Bible seems to teach us that we are to pray for and expect miraculous healings on a regular basis. So how can we account for what appears to be a discrepancy?

I'm going to be honest here and admit that I am shaking in my shoes now because I've realized I have jumped in way over my head. But I am not going to back out and not post...so bear with me. I'm just writing as someone who struggles with the same questions; I'm not trying to be authoritative, just share what I'm hanging onto when life doesn't make sense.

The first thing I have to remind myself of is that there is a much, much bigger picture than what I see. One of my favorite illustrations is to talk about a style of painting called pointillism, in which small, seemingly random dots of color are applied to a canvas to make a picture(actually, this is the way images on your computer screen are displayed, as well...those dots are called 'pixels'). If you stand where you can see the entire painting, it all works together and is something your brain can interpret as an image. However, if you just look at a tiny piece of the canvas, all you see is...a mess of color. It doesn't resolve into any kind of image. It doesn't make sense. If all the dots in that small piece tried to arrange themselves into some order that made sense to them, it would not work with the whole picture. In the same way, God sees Everything...the end from the beginning. He knows what has to happen at A to affect B so that C is positioned years later to cause D to take place. Yet we, as the little dots, keep insisting that what happens in our bit of the picture makes sense to us.

The second thing that I consider is that we have a worldy view of death...as if it were a horrible thing for a believer. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not trying to trivialize it. But, if we really believe, as Paul did, that it is preferable to be away from the body and at home with the Lord, (1 Cor. 5:8), we cannot believe it to be so horrible. Yet we tend to speak and behave as if the worst possible outcome for any scenario would be death. For one who refuses the grace of God, that certainly is true. And, for those bereaved, it is also true, because death is separation. But, for the person who actually steps through death into the presence of God...to go from knowing and understanding so little, to get to 'see face to face...know fully...' (1 Cor 13:12) has to be awesome. If someone has truly accomplished all that God had set for them to do (which may or may not be what we perceive they are to do), how can we be angry if He says, 'Come on home!'?

The third thing I have to remember is that Jesus told us we would have trials and tribulations. He warned us that life would be hard. God guaranteed us we would not understand. But we are promised that He will never leave us, and that all things work together for our good. Not our immediate happiness...our eternal 'good'.

'Not loving life' doesn't just mean being willing to die physically for Christ; it also means not clinging to my personal happiness...my agenda...my image...all that stuff. Dying of humiliation is something I'm familiar with, but I confess I have let the enemy shut me up at times for fear of it. I still care too much about the opinion of other people.

But once that fear of losing one's life -- either literally or figuratively -- is gone, then there literally is nothing the enemy can do to us. How can he defeat people who are not afraid of him?

The blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony will ultimately defeat him.