Unity

Unity. It's no coincidence that as we make significant strides towards unity, the enemy chooses to attack our friendships, our relationships. Yes, he plays off the insecurities that we are not loved, that we are not worthy of having friends, that everyone is moving on without us. He plays off of the insecurities that we are destined to be alone, that no one understands us, that there's no point in having certain friendships. He tries to create drama, plant lies in our heads, bring disunity and division, throw everything into chaos. Yes, the enemy is going to attack. Yes the attacks intensify when we are working our way towards something our Father wants. But beloved, even though the enemy is always going to attack, that doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't do anything about it.

"Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!" Psalm 133:1.

Look, even if you are not dealing with friendship or relationship problems at the moment, be cautious please. This is an area where I believe the Lord is revealing to be one of the enemy's targeted areas in these upcoming weeks. I had a vision several days ago of a chain that started to link together. But when even one link of the chain was cut, everything fell apart. Be watchful, for "the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" 1 Peter 5:8.

Beloved, we need to take a stand against the enemy and say enough is enough. So "let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" Ephesians 4:31-32.

Remember to love one another, knowing that when one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts together. Open your eyes to see who is hurting. Remember that after you put on the whole armor of God, you are to pray for all the saints.

Watchmen, don't be caught sleeping please.

Why Pray?

It seems like things on campus have cooled down quite a bit since last quarter, or at least things aren't as much "on the surface" as they had been. When things are heated on campus, it is easy to pray and to think of all of the glorious things God is doing and will do and that is good. But when things calm down, sometimes so does our motivation to pray. For our campus, for our friends, for our families...whatever it is we pray for. When we feel like we aren't seeing the desired "results," when we feel like God isn't moving or listening to what we are pleading for, it becomes hard to still pray.

Let's go back to the heart of prayer. Prayer isn't just us telling God our wish list. It is so much deeper, so much more personal, so much more beautiful than that. We get to interact with the Father, listen to what He is saying, communicate with Him, and share emotions with Him. When we intercede, we get in touch with how He is already feeling about a situation He knows much more about and cares much more about than we ever could. We get tired when we just plead and plead, but we get energy and passion when we allow God to speak first, when we listen to what He is saying, when we remember that He is God, that He is in control, that He is Love, and that He is our hope.

Ephesians 3 reminds me of how URGENT and BEAUTIFUL and FREEING this gospel message is. How we will, with all the saints, understand the depth the height, the width and the length of the love of God. How when we pray, when we share what the Lord has done, God will do INFINITELY more than we can imagine. Because He is more creative and He has so much more love than we do, and so much more wisdom and knowledge. We pray because it moves His heart. It is our privilege, and He doesn't want us to get burned out.

If you are weary, take rest in Him. He is our strength, our redeemer, our deliverer, our Abba Father. It is a beautiful thing that He loves us just the same when we sit before Him as when we intercede, when we go to large group or don't go to large group, when we go pray for people or when we don't. We can come to Him first and let all things fall from there. :) mmmm