Straining Towards What is Ahead (Pt 3)

I’ve always believed that a lonely Christian is a struggling Christian.  We were never meant to do this life by ourselves.  We were made in the image and likeness of God – a God of community. It was that way from the beginning.  Consider Adam.  Here is a guy who has it pretty good – he has a perfect relationship with God (free from sin), has the perfect job (rule over all the earth) and is in the perfect place (the garden – think Hawaii on steroids).  But God looks at Adam and recognizes that there is something wrong, saying, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”  Right from the very beginning, we were designed to need community and fellowship in our life.

So it is not surprising that the enemy would so often oppose us on our journey of spiritual growth by using the tactic of disconnection.  If he can isolate us from the important relationships through which God desires to bless us, we are far more likely to falter.  When the enemy is trying to isolate me, he usually tries to disconnect me from three life-giving relationships:

1. Marriage - As we see in Genesis 2, one of God’s amazing tactics to combat aloneness (his first) was to create marriage and to hand pick a suitable partner for us.  God desires to bless us in countless ways through our spouse (love, respect, support, intimacy, joy – just to name a few), and desires to use us to bless our spouse in return.  If the enemy can disconnect me from Carol, he deprives us both from those awesome blessings.
2. Close Friends – I belong to two small groups and I love and admire those guys.  I also have a handful of guys that I meet with individually for mutual support, encouragement and sharpening.  It’s the whole ‘iron sharpening iron’ thing.  These are all genuine Christian community, where we have the freedom to challenge one another and permission to hold one another accountable.  Rich growth in my life has resulted from these relationships.  If the enemy can disconnect me from them, he deprives me (and those with whom I would’ve met) of such growth.
3. Church Family – We’ve all heard the arguments people use about not needing church to get to God.  That may be true, but I’ve yet to ever meet anyone who doesn’t attend church who is really enjoying God and thriving in their relationship with Him.  Our church family is vital to our walk with God.  My church provides a point of spiritual authority to which I willingly submit.  It also spurs me to grow by focusing my attention and efforts in particular areas – areas I might not necessarily go to on my own.  And it brings together like-minded people who also want to grow.  There is something about having others to help you in the journey that is empowering. The enemy knows that if he can disconnect us from our church family, then we’ll slow on our walk and maybe stop altogether.

Our first defense against a plotting enemy is to understand with clarity that these relationships pose a threat to him.  Because they bring us abundance in our walk with Christ, he will do all he can to disconnect us from them.  So Hebrews 10:25 warns us, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

How do you see the enemy actively trying to disconnect you, and what concrete steps can you take to counteract that?

Next time:  Straining past the enemy’s use of discouragement.