shield maiden of the lordHave you ever wondered what it actually meant to be a 'warrior for the Kingdom' especially for we women. We certainly don't think of ourselves as large muscled, armor bearing men. I think we all understand the concept and this phrase certainly conjures up a feeling in my spirit of what it means. The question that comes to my mind is "what is the difference between a soldier and a warrior?". Again we have some conceptual understanding of what that might be, but I also realised that being a warrior is somewhat a level above being a soldier. So this sent me on a bit of a journey to find out what it is that makes a warrior tick. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with being male or female.
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Our testimonies are stories of triumph over adversity of some kind. Working our way through offence can be one of the most challenging triumphs to achieve so sharing our stories with others often brings hope that you too can have the same triumph in your daily life. So here is one of my stories about journeying through offence.
Many of my childhood summer holidays were spent at my grandparent’s lovely old weatherboard home on the edge of a very long and sandy beach in the north of New Zealand. In fact the beach is commonly called 99 Mile Beach, but is actually less than that in length. On fine summer days when the tide was low there were vast expanses of golden sand and it seemed to our young minds that the beach extended into infinity. We spent long hours playing on that beach, hunting for cod and crabs in the rock pools that dotted the beach, racing each other between them and hoping to be the first to find the next treasure the sea had left behind. Occasionally a pool just perfect for young children sat beside a mound of rocks and we would have a bit of a swim in the sun warmed water.
A while ago I had an experience that required both loving as God commands us to love, and the necessity in this instance, to use discernment because it would have a wide and potentially serious consequence if the situation was not handled the right way. I was challenged on my assertion that we needed to use some discernment in this particular instance, (I had a huge check in my spirit) because other party felt that was being super spiritual and we are to ‘just love people’. And of course we are; the upshot of this for me is that it had me exploring how love and the exercise of discernment can flow together.
'Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace' For so many of us the encouragement to look upon the face of Jesus is the scariest thing in the world right now. |
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March 2023
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