There is a fight, but it’s not for your life, it’s for your beautiful soul. You are in a boxing ring, but you must know, you are not pitted against another person, nor are you supposed to be fighting yourself. The Devil, the very Enemy of your heart, is poised in the other corner, poised with subtleties, wooing you to believe, to actually buy into the idea that you battle against anything, or anyone, other than him. I told you, “the Enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come to give life and give it to the full.” I’ve told you all this so your spiritual eyes could be opened to the battle that rages over your head and heart on any given day. You do not battle against flesh and blood. I created you to work together, champion for one another, carry one another’s burdens when your brothers and sisters, the family of humanity, everyone I created in My image, grows weary. But you aren’t fighting a visual Enemy, it’s not your spouse or best friend or colleague or neighbor or family member, it’s not the person who thinks or looks or acts or believes differently than you. It’s the Enemy of your heart, the Devil, and he masquerades in offenses, doubt, hardening, and fear. “Everyone” is not out to get you, but he is, you can be sure, and if you succumb to his vices and fears, it will overwhelm you, distract you, and cause you to question whether I am for you or against you, just as he did in the Garden. He wants to distract you from the beautiful life of living in communion with Me. What is “abundant life” and “life to the full”? It’s not what the world says with the ample possessions and hefty paychecks, or what some claim to preach in my name, “a life that is always full of joy, without pain or sorrows…” Abundant life is a life filled with my peace amidst any trial or heartache, My presence always with you and My peace. My peace is shalom peace, nothing missing, nothing broken, not lacking in anything. Yes, if you look around at the world, it is easy to lose heart at all the brokenness, but close your physical eyes to truly see what I see and your heart will be open to the way I love.
From Matthew 12:30-31, The Message:
Jesus said, “The first in importance is, ‘Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.”
From John 10:10, New International Version, (read also in The Message):
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
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