My meat…my passion is to do the will of the one who sent me and complete his work.

If you can’t find any other reason to trust yourself, know that God trusts you and trusts what he has put inside of his children: himself.

Now it makes sense that you can do all things through Christ which gives you strength. Walk in confidence that you know God and can love unconditionally.

Church culture has taught us something remarkable. We’re told we must fight. We have to fight to stay saved, fight to stay in God’s word; fight to stay holy; fight the enemy; fight…fight…fight. I’m reminded of the old hymn that championed, “I’m a soldier in the army of the Lord.”

Well dear comrade, the truth is that you’re not.

Unless you’re realistically enlisted in some form of militia in some well established country, you’re not a soldier. You aren’t a spiritual warrior, and you certainly aren’t a conqueror. Your pride…our pride has swelled our eyes shut to the reality that peaks through every now and then.

In theory, you’re saved. That would mean you’ve yielded whatever struggles you’ve dealt with and are fully trusting in God. However, like most theories, the above stated probably isn’t true*. I’m willing to bet that you, like me, have yet to yield one important struggle. It’s the struggle man has been dealing with since he first took it on. The struggle to trust.

That’s where the real fight is. We fight to hide behind the veil of happiness; fight to guard our viral pride; fight to push off any threat to hurt our fragile person. We’ve fought for generations and are becoming exceedingly efficient at it. We fight God. Being. We fight the only thing that keeps us alive.

The more you hide behind your fight, the more you’ll feel the need to fight. The more you feel the need to fight, the more you will and the more you’ll hide. Stop fighting. Throw away your weapons. Learn to love, and by loving you’ll be more than a conqueror. You’ll be a servant.

*Salvation is a process.

The only actual thing man can know of himself is his flaws. He can observe his good deeds. He can measure his excitement, love, or joy of a thing or person. However, these things are corruptible. Man is flawed, created incomplete, to be dependent on God.

Everything we know is flawed, because our knowledge is based on our flawed perception. We can be sure of our feeling. Not emotion, but intuition…instinct. God has embedded man with the intution toward truth.

Relax. Let intuition…God’s spirit be your guide.

Satan doesn’t waste time doing things he knows he can’t do. He doesn’t try to take your joy, he doesn’t try to rob you of victory, he doesn’t try to kill you.

Satan spends his time convincing you of things that aren’t true. When you believe something that isn’t true, you don’t trust anything.

God wants you to do the opposite. He wants you to trust Him and believe nothing.

Belief depends on knowledge. Knowledge is gained purely by man’s own doing. Trust depends on relationship. Relationship is gained by love…God is love.

An update to this post:

John 10:10 may have come to mind when you read this. According to John, Jesus said, “A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of” (The Message).

This is absolutely true. However, Jesus wasn’t referencing Satan. He was referencing people outside the Kingdom. Pharisees. Sadducees. Your haters.