Sunday, April 26, 2009

The Ultimate Lily Pad


Throughout our secular, pre-Christian lives, we leapfrog from one person to the next searching for a safe arm to lean upon. When we realize that no one is trustworthy totally, we begin to search for the real truth. When we find that truth in God’s word and our Living Savior, we surrender to the one place where all our trust can snuggly reside. Jesus is the “ultimate lily pad”.

A person said to me recently, "You need to smile more." It was the mirror image of a joyless Christian he saw. I knew it was the devil's second best kill thrill subtracting joy from my life, so I have decided to smile frequently just to spite Satan's efforts. My soul is secured for eternity with Christ, but my joy will forever be the manifestation of this fact. My spiritual heartbeats of joy must orchestrate the tempo of my life to be a better witness and to glorify God.

"Victoy in Jesus, my Savior forever" was not written by a pouty-faced wet blanket, so why do we allow the devil to rob us of our joy? One way is allowing circumstances to be our focus instead of our position within the body of Christ as one of His beloved. Another way is to associate constantly with people who have lost their own Christian joy. Lastly, receding from church, declining fellowhip with like-minded followers of Christ, and eliminating prayer can also bring a halt to our joy.

The human heart can be fooled into thinking death might be better than life, since no more trials and tears need to be born. Even as I see my own life framed by the deaths of so many immediate family members, I see the fallacy of this thinking. If God hasn't chosen to remove me from this world, then His will is for my life to continue and to be of service glorifying Him. We don't decide on death unless we have despaired and turned our back on God in a moment of weakness--a moment the devil relished.

Most of us know of someone, in a moment of weakness, who despaired and turned his/her back on God and His power to revive. We know those who have believed that suicide was a way to escape the tears and turbulence of this life. Long before this person died, the devil was leaking his acid of self-hate into the believer's weakest point of armor. It was killing the believer's joy, the devil's second-best coup to denigrate the name of Christ.

The lily pad is a great image of our position to God and Satan in this life. It lays atop the water, floating and facing toward heaven. It blooms in its appointed season. If it is dragged under by some weight, it dies in dark waters. It goes dormant without the warmth of the sun. So it is with believers--we balance delicately between heaven and earth, attached to the murky waters of life and sometimes tangled up by the weight of difficult circumstances. When we allow the Son to shine into our souls, we blossom and become something beautiful for God and others to see.

My challenge for you is to be aware of joyfulness versus joylessness. Decide which kind of Christian you wish to be for your Savior. Smile toward heaven and others or frown into the darkness of this world--it's your choice.

Here's smiling at you!
L. B. Greer