When: 5:21pm Daily for 14 dyas
What: John 17:21
Why: I am deeply convinced that the evil one is at work at this moment to divide the church through the issues of the day (politics, race, face masks, social distancing, etc.) Let’s all be clear who the enemy is and that the spiritual forces of evil seek to take advantage of this opportunity to weaken and divide the church. We do not need to be afraid (we are in a position of spiritual authority and victory in Christ), but we do need to be aware.
While there are definite moments when division in the body of Christ is necessary to guard the essentials of the Christian faith, that is not usually where Satan directs his best work. Where he seeks to do his best work and has found his most success is to elevate non-essential opinions to such a place of passion and power that they separate and divide the body of Christ (see one of my favorite CS Lewis quotes below).
We don’t fight spiritual battles with the weapons of this world. We have far more powerful weapons than that–we have the power of speaking to God in prayer. I want to invite you to set an alarm daily for 5:21 pm and to pray with me a prayer modeled after John 17:21 (“…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that they world may believe that you have sent me. Your prayer may sound something like this, “Father, let the body of Christ be united. Let us participate in the unity that exists between the Father and the Son so that the world may believe in Jesus.” Will you join me in this prayer for the next 14 days?
This is not just about our church, but about the Church, the body of Christ all around the world. While the enemy is at work, our God is greater and God is working too. He is working through this moment to bring good for His Kingdom. Let’s join with Him who goes before us in triumphal procession! Greater things are yet to come!
Yours in Christ,
Jeff
“I think I warned you before that if your patient can’t be kept out of the Church, he ought at least to be violently attached to some party within it. I don’t mean on really doctrinal issues; about those, the more lukewarm he is the better. And it isn’t the doctrines on which we chiefly depend for producing malice. The real fun is working up hatred between those who say “mass” and those who say “holy communion”. . . . And all the purely indifferent things—candles and clothes and what not—are an admirable ground for our activities. We have quite removed from men’s minds what that pestilent fellow Paul used to teach about food and other unessentials— namely, that the human without scruples should always give in to the human with scruples. You would think they could not fail to see the application. You would expect to find the “low” churchman genuflecting and crossing himself lest the weak conscience of his “high” brother should be moved to irreverence, and the “high” one refraining from these exercises lest he should betray his “low” brother into idolatry. And so it would have been but for our ceaseless labour. Without that the variety of usage within the Christian Church might have become a positive hotbed of charity and humility.” from The Screwtape Letters