The Heart of a Warrior预览

How Goes Your Comeback?



Understanding is a precious thing…

If someone comes up to me and shoves me down, my initial reaction might be to get up and give him a left hook. But if he then explains that there was a snake behind the log I was about to step over, a quick shift takes place. That person turns from bully to hero in a nanosecond.

Unfortunately, wounding moments won’t be healed or relieved simply by understanding alone, but understanding is a huge start.

Early in our story, the enemy of our Life gets a jump on the fight for our hearts. Before we even know we are in a fight, darkness is inflicting injury… wounding men at their core as boys. The enemy takes ground in our young heart and uses it against us, both in the moment and also in the future. Growing up, some of us had it far worse than others.

With our hearts weighted down, enduring and making the best of things often becomes our plan. Even worse than carrying the pack of lies is getting our strength from its contents. Being fueled by our wounds and their messages is a recipe for disaster in a man’s life; one our enemy loves to cook up and serve up again and again.

The Father God invites a man, his image-bearer, to partner with him, walk with him, trust him, depend on him, and align with him for more. First on the agenda is redeeming the man’s past, which is also where the early days of training begin.

God is guiding each man toward a great comeback.

God directs the steps. Christ has set the table and much of the work has already been accomplished. But we are to play our part. We have a contribution to make, a corresponding choice, an exercise of our will. What God desires to do first in a man’s life is to get out of the way everything that is in the way of receiving his love then he will initiate and validate a man by pouring his love into him. I’m not talking about salvation here… this is the normal day-to-day invitation of God, “Will you let me love you?”

Doing so, receiving love, settles the man’s heart and, in the process, invites him to partner with God in deconstructing the explosive work of the enemy and a man’s false self impostor. Oh yes, every man contends with an imposter…at least we hope he contends. Many men are so far integrated with their false self, they can’t see true from false…therefore a man needs understanding, then the deep work can begin.

Getting a better understanding of our past sets us up for redemption and our next great step forward: moving into the critical healing and training we all need as Beloved Sons. Once we see the lies we have lived under, we can invite Jesus to treat them. These wounded places foster false guilt, shame, and hatred toward ourselves, others, and ultimately, God. Again, these wounding moments had lessons, we learned something from them and what we learned wasn’t good.

Jesus wants to help us unlearn.

In your Time alone with God, ask Him:

God, what wounding moments, and the false declarations that rise from them, stand in the way of my freedom? Of my becoming Your Beloved Son?

Holy Spirit, what heavy burdens might I be carrying in my heart? What wounding moments and wounding messages can You reveal to me that it’s high time I stopped toting around?