25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single cubit to his life span? 28 And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. Matthew 6:25-34 (LSB) Read verses 30-34 on the site.
To be honest, I never thought that I would ever end up in the part of the battle that I have found myself. For the first 19 or so years after my salvation, I was just your typical church member who “occasionally” found my faith peeking through into my work week….
As I matured, I became a Bible teacher and a Deacon. I did participate in Evangelism Explosion training and used that training as a counselor on Sunday mornings at the altar. However, the rest of the time I was not exactly giving God much of my time. That changed in 2004.
For the first 8 months of 2004, God drew me closer and closer to Him. By August I was in the Bible or in prayer or in theological study or worship nearly all day every day. I just could not get enough of my Lord. Still, being in the battle that Paul describes in Ephesians 6 was not on my radar. However, I began to experience some “push back” later that year. I was at a Deacon’s meeting one Saturday morning. My Pastor was depressed and despondent because several of our small church’s long time members had left our fellowship. They had not moved away. They had moved to other churches. I listened as he lamented. <Continue reading post>