Unite and Conquer

"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7: 13, 14

    When the Allied liberators marched across Europe in the spring of 1945, there was unspeakable joy among the throngs of hurting people. There wasn't a person who didn't have someone to forgive, whether it was a brutal soldier, a vicious camp guard or a betrayer amongst their own. Death, destruction and division cut a swath of pain which could only be healed by acts of forgiveness.

    When I saw the headlines in the paper this week proclaiming the end of the pandemic in our county, I felt a grateful sense of liberation from at least a portion of the war which has plagued us. The pandemic left in its wake separations and divisions, some temporary and others permanent. There were sharp quarrels about mask vs. no mask, vaccination vs. no vaccination. Though liquor stores remained open for business, church doors were shut - some never to reopen. Those in healthcare have been tested and tried, the economy has been crippled. The elderly and infirm were holed up in the nursing homes alone. Funerals were not permitted so even grieving was solitary. We all have healing to do.

    As the body of Christ, we must unite and conquer! Within the spiritual battleground, we are the liberators. We have the hope for the lame, the brokenhearted and the prisoner that can only be found in Jesus Christ. Before we don the full armor of God, we must humbly examine our own hearts, asking God to forgive any lingering sickness caused by sin, looking to the Spirit within us for the power we need because the war rages on. Satan is hard at work seeking to demolish all that God has ordained, whether it be marriage, family, gender, government or the church itself. 

    Get your gear. Strap on that sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and head out. Pray with people. Send out cards and letters. Exhort those who are able to return to church. Turn off the news and turn your eyes upon Jesus. United we stand; divided we fall.

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." Isaiah 61: 1-3