Ephesians 6:10-18 July 27, 2008
The Whole Armor of God, Part 5
“The Shoes of Peace – Firm Footing!”
Rev. Meagan Boozer
Weebles… (fill in the blank!) “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down!” I know I’m dating myself here. But, there were toys in my childhood called weebles. It was a toy in the shape (sort of) of an elongated egg, either small or big, that was heavily weighted on the bottom. If you placed this toy on a hard surface, it wobbled. Some weebles were big, blow-up things – the size of a small child. You could punch that weeble, and it would wobble, but it wouldn’t fall down. In fact, a weeble couldn’t fall down if everything was working the way it was supposed to!
Let us pray: Gracious and Holy God, thank you for your presence with us this morning, and every morning. Thank you for your love, for your grace, and for your word. Teach us. Revive us. Focus us. Challenge us. Change us, we pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet, put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.”
In the last two weeks, we have learned about the Belt of Truth and we have learned about the Breastplate of Righteousness. Today, we move to our footwear – which many commentators call the “shoes of peace.” Here’s how the shoes would work for the Roman soldier: A soldier would put on two pieces for his lower legs and feet: First, he would put on a metal piece that would be molded around the front of his leg, beginning at the top of the knee and extending down past the lower leg, resting on the upper portion of the foot (sort of like a shin guard); and second, he would put on a shoe made of two parts. On the top and bottom, the foot was covered in brass; on the sides the shoes were held together by multiples pieces of leather. There were spikes on the bottom of these shoes, spikes up to 3-inches long that went down into the ground when the soldier walked. Can you picture these shoes? These spiky, lethal shoes are what Paul calls the shoes of peace!
Peace is defined as “freedom from war or conflict.” For a believer, there are two kinds of peace: Peace with God, and the peace of God. Before a person believes in Jesus as Savior and Lord, as an unrighteous sinner, that person is in conflict with the righteousness of a holy God (at war, so to speak). Paul writes in Colossians 1:20, “and through Jesus, God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” Listen to how Peterson puts this verse in The Message, “but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross.”
Peace with God (salvation peace) is given to us when we receive the gift of that robe of righteousness that Jesus died to give us. If you have given your heart to the Lord, you have peace with God; it is your birthright as one who has been born again by the Spirit! But what about the peace of God (walking-around peace)? A believer can have salvation peace with God, but not have the walking-around peace of God. The two are both very different, but both very important as part of the spiritual armor.
Paul speaks these words to believers in Philippians 4:7,“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” That’s walking-around peace, he’s talking about there. Yet don’t we know that a Christian can walk in constant worry, anxiety, conflict, turmoil, and strife. Something is wrong – and it has to do with the shoes of peace.
The most important part of the shoes of peace are those spikes – sort of like cleats that soccer or football players wear - except the shoes that Paul is talking about were not meant for running! The shoes Paul is talking about (or we might call them boots) served the soldier well for marching, especially into battle. They gave the soldier traction and prevented sliding. Think about that for a moment. How many of us have been in a period of time when we seemed to be “backsliding” in our faith? (In other words, our faith seems to be diminishing instead of increasing…) Listen, here’s some truth: we can’t “backslide” in our peace with God, because our peace with God (once we have it) doesn’t depend on what we do, it all depends on what Jesus has already done! However, we can definitely backslide in experiencing the peace of God if we don’t dig in those spikes and stand strong in living as God calls us to live.
In order to have on the whole armor of God, you and I need to know 2 things: 1) that we have salvation peace with God (which ties in to having that breastplate of righteousness on – knowing you are saved for sure and walking confidently in that truth always), and 2) we need to have the peace of God in our lives.
How many of you struggle with having the peace of God in your lives? How many of you know someone who is a believer, who struggles with being settled in the peace of God? How many of you know someone who definitely has the peace of God? What’s the difference in their lives? What does it look like to have the peace of God in my life? (And we need to be concerned about what this peace looks like because we must remember that others, who don’t have peace with God are looking to see what having God’s peace actually does for you and me…a very important thing to remember in our ultimate calling to seek and save the lost.)
This past week at Krislund Camp, I, along with Betty Myers, Brenda Hart, Dawn Smith, and a couple of women from other churches, served approximately 150 campers and staff as helpers in the kitchen. The cook for the camp this year is a very big man, living apart from his wife for the summer in order to work at Krislund, with one teenage daughter and one 5-year-old daughter living with him at the camp. The guy was tired. I have to say he was exhausted. We were exhausted after just several days! It was unclear to us whether he was a believer or not, but if he was, he sure didn’t have the peace of God. Well, this little army of women decided we were there to serve the camp, and serving the camp meant helping the cook in whatever way we could. He would come into the kitchen in the morning tired and grumpy. We didn’t press him to cheer up, we just tried to help and support him in every way we could – from prepping food, cooking food, and serving food – to cleaning all the pots and pans he dirtied up along the way, mopping the floors, and getting things in and out of the food storage rooms. We tried hard not to grumble, because we really wanted to model the servant heart of Jesus. As each day progressed and the week passed, he began to share more of his life’s story with one person here and another person over there. I found out that when he was only 16 years old, his sister killed their father. He said to me, “Does that help you understand why I am the way I am?” He had built quite a wall around his life because of so much that he had endured throughout his life. But, here’s what happened. He began to joke around more with us and laugh at our silly attempts to help him run his kitchen. We would share a verse of Scripture with him at appropriate moments, we would encourage him by telling him what he did well, and we prayed for him and for his family (once, on Friday, at his request, we prayed out loud, together!) On Friday night, we even convinced him to join us in making fools of ourselves as we did a little “kitchen dance” for the camp for Talent Night! He even helped us make uniforms with our red aprons! He hadn’t done anything like that all summer, he told us, and he really seemed to have fun! This man seemed to have more of the peace of God when we left than when we came! He really seemed to like being with us! He wasn’t so grumpy, gloomy, negative, and sarcastic! So this is point number one:
If you have the peace of God, your manner shouldn’t chase people away from your life! In fact, if you have the peace of God in your life, people will want to be around you –
because you are a positive, listening, supporting, stabilizing influence on their lives.
Work on it, Christians. Dig those shoes in and settle for nothing less!
Point number two: If you have the peace of God in your life, when the going gets rough, you’re not going to go into panic mode; you’re not going to explode like a grenade; you’re not going to collapse like a heap of dirty clothes in the corner.
If you have the peace of God in your life, when the going gets tough, you’re going to dig those spikes in even deeper, you’re going to remember you’re covered in the blood of the Lamb (breastplate of righteousness), and you’re going to stand firm
on the promises of God (belt of truth).
If you have the presence of chaos in your life and absence of peace, it could be two things: the devil may be finding a chink in your armor and messing with you, and you need to ask the Holy Spirit to show you where the area of exposure or weakness is, or the sense of chaos may be a signal that you are not living in obedience to the will of God. The chaos may be a signal you are living in rebellion and neglect in regards to your relationship with God. Can I be frank? As your pastor, who loves you very much, I don’t want to hear you whine and moan about your life being a mess when you know full well that you are doing stuff God says you shouldn’t do – or not doing stuff you know you should do! We have no right to be blaming the devil by saying things like “the devil made me do it,” or “that old devil is after me again” when it’s nothing but our own unwillingness to submit to God’s instructions that has put our lives in chaos! So, point number 3:
One of the best ways to keep your stand against the devil, is to live like Jesus lived – then you’ll have that peace that cannot be shaken!
Paul tells us in Colossians 3:15, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.” Paul’s use of the word ‘rule’ is significant here. Paul is telling us that peace is supposed to be calling the shots – not the circumstances that surround us calling the shots! Listen to the verse this way, “Let the peace of God call the shots in your life…let the peace of God umpire your life and your actions…let the peace of God referee your emotions and your decisions…” We must get our eyes off of our problems, and get them on the LORD who is the God of peace! Amen?
Now, I need to make one more major point about having the peace of God – and I’m going to use the Scripture to make it. Please turn to Romans 16. We’re going to read verses 17-20. “I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offenses, in opposition to the teaching that you have learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded. For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I want you to be wise in what is good and guileless in what is evil. The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”
So, here’s the deal: There are people in your life who rock your peace - Christian people who don’t have the peace of God and non-Christian people who don’t have peace with God. People who love a good, juicy story about someone else, people who insist on their own way and don’t consider other’s opinions, people who exaggerate personal circumstances for dramatic purposes and negative attention, people who hurt other people in word and action, people who are a burden to us as we try to walk in the freedom of Christ, people who somehow are able to get us to give up our firm footing in God’s garden of peace and start walking around using our spiky shoes to hurt rather than help others. This Scripture says to do what with those people in your life? Avoid them. Wow. So, how do you do this?
For me, if the person is a believer, in a kind, but honest way, I tell them that their behavior, their way of talking, their attitude, their poor decisions, their whatever, is causing me to wobble. I tell them I love them, because we are commanded to love all people – but I tell them that, in order to keep my peace, I just can’t spend any quantity of time with them. Now, you might say, “that is so radical. I could never do that.” Yes you can, if you want peace badly enough! And let me tell you, peace is not over-rated. It can’t be over-rated. There’s an old poem, written in Cowman’s Springs in the Valley that goes like this:
In the center of the whirlpool,
while the waters rush around,
there’s a space of perfect stillness,
though with turmoil it is bound;
All is calm, and all is quiet,
scarcely even a sense of sound.
So with us – despite the conflict –
when in Christ His peace is found.
I have to admit that when my mom was living, there were many evenings she would call me on the phone after 8:00 p.m. We had caller ID at the time, and I would see her number and choose not to answer. You see, in the evenings, my mom would often drink too much wine. As she got older and skinnier, less wine would do more to impair her speech and her thinking. Talking to her after 8 p.m. was usually not a good thing for me. It shook my peace. So, one day I told her that I didn’t like to talk to her on the phone when she had had too much to drink. It was hard, but I said it. She didn’t stop calling though, because the effect of the alcohol on her was to want to talk to people. I got to the point that I wouldn’t answer the phone unless I felt I had enough energy in that moment to stay peaceful in the conversation. I was doing as Paul urges here - avoidance - though it may seem wrong and heartless. See, the devil is not just a liar, he is an accuser. Revelation 12:10-12 instructs us, “Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has happened at last—the salvation and power and kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ! For the Accuser has been thrown down to earth—the one who accused our brothers and sisters before our God day and night. And they have defeated him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of their testimony. And they were not afraid to die. Rejoice, O heavens! And you who live in the heavens, rejoice! But terror will come on the earth and the sea. For the Devil has come down to you in great anger, and he knows that he has little time.” You see, he takes a situation in our lives, and twists and turns it to accuse us and cause us to feel guilty about something we’re not doing, or something we are doing that is actually the right thing to do (according to Scripture). The devil will whisper in my ear, “Meagan, that is a horrible, cruel thing to do – not to answer the phone when your own mother is calling you.” And it comes down to this: whose voice am I going to listen to – the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through God’s word, or the voice of the accuser? The devil knows, of course, that if I keep my peace, I will be of greater help to my mother in the long run because I will be able to love her better. (And that really manifested itself in our relationship last summer when she was so sick. Thank you, God!) Paul wants us to be wise in what is good, and be guileless (or very clear) in what is evil. Know the difference. Know the voice of the Good Shepherd. Listen to that voice and follow it. Paul promises us that then, “The God of peace will crush Satan under our feet.”
Recap:
In the strength of the Lord, for His glory, be a positive, listening, supporting, and stabilizing person – and you will have the peace of God, while you exhibit that peace in your life to those who want it and need it.
When the going gets tough, don’t freak out! Remember you’re a witness to the peace of God: You are covered in the blood of the Lamb (breastplate of righteousness), and be deliberate about standing firm on the promises of God (belt of truth).
The best way to keep your stand against the devil, is to live like Jesus lived – then you’ll have that peace that cannot be shaken!
Avoid people who mess with your peace, unless you know for sure that you can keep from falling when you’re with them. Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down. Christians who are intentional about wearing the armor of God may wobble, but because of the shoes of peace will NOT fall down!
I want to close by reading several short paragraphs from Rick Renner’s book, Dressed to Kill:
Let me remind you of something extremely important. In Joshua, chapter one, God freely gave the children of Israel the promised land. However, in order for them to possess and enjoy this privilege, they had to go in and put their feet on that ground which God freely gave them. God told Joshua, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you…” (Joshua 1:3).
Yet the land God promised them was infested with giants and opposition. In order to possess God’s promise to them, they had to do some walking and fighting. They had to fight for the kingdom of Ai, the city of Jericho, and so on. These infestations did not want to easily give up their ownership and surrender to the people of God. Yet in time the kingdom of Ai was destroyed, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the people of God prevailed because God was on their side!
It may be that there are areas of your life which seem to linger on and defeat you. There may be habits that have held you for a long, long time, or personal hassles that seem impossible to overcome.
In the cross of Jesus Christ, every single one of these were resolved, and their power over your life was utterly shattered. Now it is time for you to do some walking! Just like the Israelites of old, freedom is yours. Now you must go in and possess the land!
If the devil is foolish enough to think he can stand in your way, remember, God is right there with you! This is a joint partnership between you and Him! Therefore, march straight ahead, claim what is yours – and if the devil refuses to move, then take this as an opportunity to smash him like grapes, and crush him. This is your chance to demonstrate his defeat!
With the God of peace on your side, you’re a whole lot bigger than the devil. So throw your shoulders back, hold your head up high, and dig your heels down as deep as you can. Don’t listen to Satan’s hellish tales. Rather, when he whispers threats to your mind and emotions, wiggle your heel down even deeper into the dirt to remind him that he’s not coming out from under your feet!
Amen.
The Whole Armor of God, Part 5
“The Shoes of Peace – Firm Footing!”
Rev. Meagan Boozer
Weebles… (fill in the blank!) “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down!” I know I’m dating myself here. But, there were toys in my childhood called weebles. It was a toy in the shape (sort of) of an elongated egg, either small or big, that was heavily weighted on the bottom. If you placed this toy on a hard surface, it wobbled. Some weebles were big, blow-up things – the size of a small child. You could punch that weeble, and it would wobble, but it wouldn’t fall down. In fact, a weeble couldn’t fall down if everything was working the way it was supposed to!
Let us pray: Gracious and Holy God, thank you for your presence with us this morning, and every morning. Thank you for your love, for your grace, and for your word. Teach us. Revive us. Focus us. Challenge us. Change us, we pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet, put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.”
In the last two weeks, we have learned about the Belt of Truth and we have learned about the Breastplate of Righteousness. Today, we move to our footwear – which many commentators call the “shoes of peace.” Here’s how the shoes would work for the Roman soldier: A soldier would put on two pieces for his lower legs and feet: First, he would put on a metal piece that would be molded around the front of his leg, beginning at the top of the knee and extending down past the lower leg, resting on the upper portion of the foot (sort of like a shin guard); and second, he would put on a shoe made of two parts. On the top and bottom, the foot was covered in brass; on the sides the shoes were held together by multiples pieces of leather. There were spikes on the bottom of these shoes, spikes up to 3-inches long that went down into the ground when the soldier walked. Can you picture these shoes? These spiky, lethal shoes are what Paul calls the shoes of peace!
Peace is defined as “freedom from war or conflict.” For a believer, there are two kinds of peace: Peace with God, and the peace of God. Before a person believes in Jesus as Savior and Lord, as an unrighteous sinner, that person is in conflict with the righteousness of a holy God (at war, so to speak). Paul writes in Colossians 1:20, “and through Jesus, God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” Listen to how Peterson puts this verse in The Message, “but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross.”
Peace with God (salvation peace) is given to us when we receive the gift of that robe of righteousness that Jesus died to give us. If you have given your heart to the Lord, you have peace with God; it is your birthright as one who has been born again by the Spirit! But what about the peace of God (walking-around peace)? A believer can have salvation peace with God, but not have the walking-around peace of God. The two are both very different, but both very important as part of the spiritual armor.
Paul speaks these words to believers in Philippians 4:7,“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” That’s walking-around peace, he’s talking about there. Yet don’t we know that a Christian can walk in constant worry, anxiety, conflict, turmoil, and strife. Something is wrong – and it has to do with the shoes of peace.
The most important part of the shoes of peace are those spikes – sort of like cleats that soccer or football players wear - except the shoes that Paul is talking about were not meant for running! The shoes Paul is talking about (or we might call them boots) served the soldier well for marching, especially into battle. They gave the soldier traction and prevented sliding. Think about that for a moment. How many of us have been in a period of time when we seemed to be “backsliding” in our faith? (In other words, our faith seems to be diminishing instead of increasing…) Listen, here’s some truth: we can’t “backslide” in our peace with God, because our peace with God (once we have it) doesn’t depend on what we do, it all depends on what Jesus has already done! However, we can definitely backslide in experiencing the peace of God if we don’t dig in those spikes and stand strong in living as God calls us to live.
In order to have on the whole armor of God, you and I need to know 2 things: 1) that we have salvation peace with God (which ties in to having that breastplate of righteousness on – knowing you are saved for sure and walking confidently in that truth always), and 2) we need to have the peace of God in our lives.
How many of you struggle with having the peace of God in your lives? How many of you know someone who is a believer, who struggles with being settled in the peace of God? How many of you know someone who definitely has the peace of God? What’s the difference in their lives? What does it look like to have the peace of God in my life? (And we need to be concerned about what this peace looks like because we must remember that others, who don’t have peace with God are looking to see what having God’s peace actually does for you and me…a very important thing to remember in our ultimate calling to seek and save the lost.)
This past week at Krislund Camp, I, along with Betty Myers, Brenda Hart, Dawn Smith, and a couple of women from other churches, served approximately 150 campers and staff as helpers in the kitchen. The cook for the camp this year is a very big man, living apart from his wife for the summer in order to work at Krislund, with one teenage daughter and one 5-year-old daughter living with him at the camp. The guy was tired. I have to say he was exhausted. We were exhausted after just several days! It was unclear to us whether he was a believer or not, but if he was, he sure didn’t have the peace of God. Well, this little army of women decided we were there to serve the camp, and serving the camp meant helping the cook in whatever way we could. He would come into the kitchen in the morning tired and grumpy. We didn’t press him to cheer up, we just tried to help and support him in every way we could – from prepping food, cooking food, and serving food – to cleaning all the pots and pans he dirtied up along the way, mopping the floors, and getting things in and out of the food storage rooms. We tried hard not to grumble, because we really wanted to model the servant heart of Jesus. As each day progressed and the week passed, he began to share more of his life’s story with one person here and another person over there. I found out that when he was only 16 years old, his sister killed their father. He said to me, “Does that help you understand why I am the way I am?” He had built quite a wall around his life because of so much that he had endured throughout his life. But, here’s what happened. He began to joke around more with us and laugh at our silly attempts to help him run his kitchen. We would share a verse of Scripture with him at appropriate moments, we would encourage him by telling him what he did well, and we prayed for him and for his family (once, on Friday, at his request, we prayed out loud, together!) On Friday night, we even convinced him to join us in making fools of ourselves as we did a little “kitchen dance” for the camp for Talent Night! He even helped us make uniforms with our red aprons! He hadn’t done anything like that all summer, he told us, and he really seemed to have fun! This man seemed to have more of the peace of God when we left than when we came! He really seemed to like being with us! He wasn’t so grumpy, gloomy, negative, and sarcastic! So this is point number one:
If you have the peace of God, your manner shouldn’t chase people away from your life! In fact, if you have the peace of God in your life, people will want to be around you –
because you are a positive, listening, supporting, stabilizing influence on their lives.
Work on it, Christians. Dig those shoes in and settle for nothing less!
Point number two: If you have the peace of God in your life, when the going gets rough, you’re not going to go into panic mode; you’re not going to explode like a grenade; you’re not going to collapse like a heap of dirty clothes in the corner.
If you have the peace of God in your life, when the going gets tough, you’re going to dig those spikes in even deeper, you’re going to remember you’re covered in the blood of the Lamb (breastplate of righteousness), and you’re going to stand firm
on the promises of God (belt of truth).
If you have the presence of chaos in your life and absence of peace, it could be two things: the devil may be finding a chink in your armor and messing with you, and you need to ask the Holy Spirit to show you where the area of exposure or weakness is, or the sense of chaos may be a signal that you are not living in obedience to the will of God. The chaos may be a signal you are living in rebellion and neglect in regards to your relationship with God. Can I be frank? As your pastor, who loves you very much, I don’t want to hear you whine and moan about your life being a mess when you know full well that you are doing stuff God says you shouldn’t do – or not doing stuff you know you should do! We have no right to be blaming the devil by saying things like “the devil made me do it,” or “that old devil is after me again” when it’s nothing but our own unwillingness to submit to God’s instructions that has put our lives in chaos! So, point number 3:
One of the best ways to keep your stand against the devil, is to live like Jesus lived – then you’ll have that peace that cannot be shaken!
Paul tells us in Colossians 3:15, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.” Paul’s use of the word ‘rule’ is significant here. Paul is telling us that peace is supposed to be calling the shots – not the circumstances that surround us calling the shots! Listen to the verse this way, “Let the peace of God call the shots in your life…let the peace of God umpire your life and your actions…let the peace of God referee your emotions and your decisions…” We must get our eyes off of our problems, and get them on the LORD who is the God of peace! Amen?
Now, I need to make one more major point about having the peace of God – and I’m going to use the Scripture to make it. Please turn to Romans 16. We’re going to read verses 17-20. “I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offenses, in opposition to the teaching that you have learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded. For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I want you to be wise in what is good and guileless in what is evil. The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”
So, here’s the deal: There are people in your life who rock your peace - Christian people who don’t have the peace of God and non-Christian people who don’t have peace with God. People who love a good, juicy story about someone else, people who insist on their own way and don’t consider other’s opinions, people who exaggerate personal circumstances for dramatic purposes and negative attention, people who hurt other people in word and action, people who are a burden to us as we try to walk in the freedom of Christ, people who somehow are able to get us to give up our firm footing in God’s garden of peace and start walking around using our spiky shoes to hurt rather than help others. This Scripture says to do what with those people in your life? Avoid them. Wow. So, how do you do this?
For me, if the person is a believer, in a kind, but honest way, I tell them that their behavior, their way of talking, their attitude, their poor decisions, their whatever, is causing me to wobble. I tell them I love them, because we are commanded to love all people – but I tell them that, in order to keep my peace, I just can’t spend any quantity of time with them. Now, you might say, “that is so radical. I could never do that.” Yes you can, if you want peace badly enough! And let me tell you, peace is not over-rated. It can’t be over-rated. There’s an old poem, written in Cowman’s Springs in the Valley that goes like this:
In the center of the whirlpool,
while the waters rush around,
there’s a space of perfect stillness,
though with turmoil it is bound;
All is calm, and all is quiet,
scarcely even a sense of sound.
So with us – despite the conflict –
when in Christ His peace is found.
I have to admit that when my mom was living, there were many evenings she would call me on the phone after 8:00 p.m. We had caller ID at the time, and I would see her number and choose not to answer. You see, in the evenings, my mom would often drink too much wine. As she got older and skinnier, less wine would do more to impair her speech and her thinking. Talking to her after 8 p.m. was usually not a good thing for me. It shook my peace. So, one day I told her that I didn’t like to talk to her on the phone when she had had too much to drink. It was hard, but I said it. She didn’t stop calling though, because the effect of the alcohol on her was to want to talk to people. I got to the point that I wouldn’t answer the phone unless I felt I had enough energy in that moment to stay peaceful in the conversation. I was doing as Paul urges here - avoidance - though it may seem wrong and heartless. See, the devil is not just a liar, he is an accuser. Revelation 12:10-12 instructs us, “Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has happened at last—the salvation and power and kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ! For the Accuser has been thrown down to earth—the one who accused our brothers and sisters before our God day and night. And they have defeated him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of their testimony. And they were not afraid to die. Rejoice, O heavens! And you who live in the heavens, rejoice! But terror will come on the earth and the sea. For the Devil has come down to you in great anger, and he knows that he has little time.” You see, he takes a situation in our lives, and twists and turns it to accuse us and cause us to feel guilty about something we’re not doing, or something we are doing that is actually the right thing to do (according to Scripture). The devil will whisper in my ear, “Meagan, that is a horrible, cruel thing to do – not to answer the phone when your own mother is calling you.” And it comes down to this: whose voice am I going to listen to – the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through God’s word, or the voice of the accuser? The devil knows, of course, that if I keep my peace, I will be of greater help to my mother in the long run because I will be able to love her better. (And that really manifested itself in our relationship last summer when she was so sick. Thank you, God!) Paul wants us to be wise in what is good, and be guileless (or very clear) in what is evil. Know the difference. Know the voice of the Good Shepherd. Listen to that voice and follow it. Paul promises us that then, “The God of peace will crush Satan under our feet.”
Recap:
In the strength of the Lord, for His glory, be a positive, listening, supporting, and stabilizing person – and you will have the peace of God, while you exhibit that peace in your life to those who want it and need it.
When the going gets tough, don’t freak out! Remember you’re a witness to the peace of God: You are covered in the blood of the Lamb (breastplate of righteousness), and be deliberate about standing firm on the promises of God (belt of truth).
The best way to keep your stand against the devil, is to live like Jesus lived – then you’ll have that peace that cannot be shaken!
Avoid people who mess with your peace, unless you know for sure that you can keep from falling when you’re with them. Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down. Christians who are intentional about wearing the armor of God may wobble, but because of the shoes of peace will NOT fall down!
I want to close by reading several short paragraphs from Rick Renner’s book, Dressed to Kill:
Let me remind you of something extremely important. In Joshua, chapter one, God freely gave the children of Israel the promised land. However, in order for them to possess and enjoy this privilege, they had to go in and put their feet on that ground which God freely gave them. God told Joshua, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you…” (Joshua 1:3).
Yet the land God promised them was infested with giants and opposition. In order to possess God’s promise to them, they had to do some walking and fighting. They had to fight for the kingdom of Ai, the city of Jericho, and so on. These infestations did not want to easily give up their ownership and surrender to the people of God. Yet in time the kingdom of Ai was destroyed, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the people of God prevailed because God was on their side!
It may be that there are areas of your life which seem to linger on and defeat you. There may be habits that have held you for a long, long time, or personal hassles that seem impossible to overcome.
In the cross of Jesus Christ, every single one of these were resolved, and their power over your life was utterly shattered. Now it is time for you to do some walking! Just like the Israelites of old, freedom is yours. Now you must go in and possess the land!
If the devil is foolish enough to think he can stand in your way, remember, God is right there with you! This is a joint partnership between you and Him! Therefore, march straight ahead, claim what is yours – and if the devil refuses to move, then take this as an opportunity to smash him like grapes, and crush him. This is your chance to demonstrate his defeat!
With the God of peace on your side, you’re a whole lot bigger than the devil. So throw your shoulders back, hold your head up high, and dig your heels down as deep as you can. Don’t listen to Satan’s hellish tales. Rather, when he whispers threats to your mind and emotions, wiggle your heel down even deeper into the dirt to remind him that he’s not coming out from under your feet!
Amen.
