A New Day- RECKLESS ABANDON
A New Day
by
Rocky Fleming
Friday - Reckless Abandon
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." (1 John 4:18 ESV)
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Imagine with me that Satan, the old Accuser, and Jesus are having a conversation. This conversation is much like the one Satan had with God in Job 1:1-6. The fallen angel is doing what he does, he is accusing you and me.
"Jesus, look at those people You gave your life for. Are they really worth what You had to do for them?" Satan asked.
"Of course they are. They are My family. I would do it all over again, for they are my delight," Jesus answered.
"I don't understand You Jesus. They are a pathetic bunch. They are unfaithful to You, distrustful of each other, backbiters, prideful, lustful and a whole lot of things I like, and they remind me of me. But, how can You delight in them? They are so unlike you. They are more like me," the demon continued his sarcastic charge.
Jesus replied, "That is because you see them as they are. I see them as they will one day be because of how I will reshape them. But you are right about one thing. You do not understand Me."
"Look at this world of chaos that I created. I took Your idealistic creation and turned it into a trash heap of despair, disease and strife, and I did it with one piece of fruit," Satan hissed his words. "Furthermore I have now put the people of this world at odds with one another. There is no peace. There is no rest. There is no hope. I have them right where I want them. Nation against nation, race against race, culture against culture, man and woman against each other, and best of all, church against church. They are done."
"So you think people are done and there is no hope," Jesus answered. "Satan you are very shortsighted. But that is to be expected for you can be at only once place at a time, and your view is not only limited, it is also corrupted by your evil cynicism. You cannot see the hope and courage in My men and women that I see."
"Ha! Courage," Satan barked. "How do You think any of those pitiful wretches down there can have courage? Why they will fold like a house of cards when I bring my pressure to bear on them. Just watch what happens in the future. They will face persecution and stressful conditions that they have never faced before. There is nothing that can change them. They are self-centered cowards and they will always be that way. They will run from You."
"Oh I have the answer for that," Jesus answered. "I'll just love them into the courage they need just the way Father did Me. You do remember when you tempted Me to run that I loved Father more than Myself and told Him that I wanted His will to be done and not mine. Do you remember that?"
Satan had been put into checkmate with this statement and fact. He knew the time Jesus spoke of was a once and for all act that was made by the courageous obedience of Jesus, and it secured eternal hope for a desperate world in need of it. Jesus bested him that night and the next morning as the Son of God took His courage to the cross and secured His family's eternal salvation. But Satan wasn't finished with his accusing.
"What do you mean You will love them into courage? I've never heard such a preposterous statement. How can that work? He laughed.
"Again you cannot understand, for you do not know what perfect love looks like, except what you observe with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yours is a corruption of love. Yours is selfish. Yours is deceitful. Yours creates despair and condemnation. What you deceive them with and call love and courage is only self-centered pride, which always lets them down. But My love takes away condemnation and infuses into my men and women My courage. They have in them that which I had in Me, and you know the outcome of that?" Jesus declared.
Jesus continued, "Satan I'm going to dismiss you now. But before you go I need to let you in on something. You are about to see courage and battles like you have never seen before. Because of your limited view, you have not seen that I have been amassing an army of warriors who carry My name and who know how to battle you and yours and win. They will inflict a holy war on your prison kingdom and it will be torn down before your own eyes. These men and women will not shrink back. Instead they will take holy ground in My name. Captives will be set free, and you will face your end. Do what you will to prepare for it. But you know what is coming and what will happen."
Satan slumps his shoulders and slithers off without the haughty prance he brought before Jesus. He knows his time is up for he knows God's men and women have been raised up for a time such as this. The battle is on. Of all his battles, it is this one that he has dreaded the most for the last 2,000 years, for it tells him that his time is about to be up.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, we have nothing to fear with the times we are in, for we serve the Winner of this war. We just have to go in and mop up. So tap into the perfect love Jesus has for you. Allow His love to infuse in you the courage you need, and then step out in reckless abandon. Get armored up and mount up. Let us go get those refugees out there and set them free by giving em heaven! Now is the time! Now is the best time!!! NOW!!!!