What is your first line of defense? Following 9/11, there were arguments about what our nation’s “first line of defense” should be.
The military, intelligence agencies, securing the airports, better border patrol, or tighter immigration standards—which ought to be our first line of defense? The arguments still continue.
What about us? What about when we’re faced with minor or major challenges or even crisis? What is our first line of defense?
I was sitting in the Juror selection holding area for Orange County, waiting to do Jury Duty when my left ear, all of a sudden just started to ache. As soon as I was dismissed, my first line of defense was to put some old antibiotic drops in my ear, take a couple of aspirins, and if worse, I’d call my doctor in the morning. After much misery, I finally called a doctor friend who got me on antibiotics and prescribed a new dose of ear drops.
My first line of defense was self-treatment—then drugs! Looking back I wondered, “Where was God in my line of defense?” I didn’t call the church to come and pray, that wasn’t my first line of defense. WHY NOT?
Jesus was tired and ready for a break from the people, so he got in the boat with his disciples and headed to the other side of the lake. It was only a matter of minutes aboard the gently rocking boat, with the sound of water splashing against the boat, and Jesus was asleep.
Shortly after sunset the weather changed. Down from the surrounding hills wind rushed upon the lake. Dark storm clouds filled the sky. These seasoned boatmen prepared for the storm like they had many times before. They dropped their sail, turned the boat to face the waves, battened things down that might fly off the boat, got the bailing equipment ready in case some water might splash aboard, and they began to row for shore. Collectively these actions were their first line of defense.
But the storm was beyond their ability. All their resources weren’t enough to do battle with this storm. They were at the sinking point when they called out, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” Jesus was - and still is - familiar with being the last resort instead of the first line of defense.
Jesus was able to sleep in the storm because of his faith in God’s love and care—his Father was his first line of defense. Jesus said, “By myself I can do nothing.”
Every day challenges force us to choose some first line of defense. What is your first line of defense? And what relation to that choice is determined by who you’ve chosen as master. We can’t choose ourselves and God both as our first line of defense. Both can’t be our first line of defense. Only one can be first. Which will we choose?
Andy McDonald
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWoo-hoo! First comment!
ReplyDeleteI often find it hard to even consider God as a defense in minor situations. Should I waste God's time with something like a cold?
God IS my first line of defense. But he rarely cures my cold — or whatever is bugging me in today's selection of maladies and mishaps. I talk to him, give Him time to act, and then move to plan B — Advil, coffee, exercise, whatever. Should I ask and not take action, sit back and suffer the consequences?
ReplyDeleteI believe that God can use Advil, coffee, exercise, whatever. God is capable of doing the work of evangelism Himself, but he likes to use us to accomplish it. In the same way, God is capable of immediately removing our cold, and sometimes He does, but more often He works through other methods. Making God our first line of defense doesn't mean we sit back and do nothing, it means we place the matter in His control. If my wife was having a heart attack, I wouldn't sit back and wait for God take care of things. But I also wouldn't put all my trust in the ambulence and doctors. I would pray that God would use all the options available to bring healing and life. I don't think we can completely separate God's working from modern medicine.
ReplyDeleteIs God sitting on his throne spending His days wondering who he should heal and who he shouldn’t? Do we think that if we pray hard enough we can sway His thinking? If we pray often enough or earnest enough we can change His mind? Is EVERYTHING that happens or doesn’t happen God’s will?
ReplyDeleteSorry, this is may sound frivolous, but I've just loved your image of God sitting and wondering like "today I'm gonna heal John because he's kinda cool, but not Mary because she's done uncool things". How distorted we may picture God's loving character. Sometimes we want to endorse our irrational decisions with long hauls of prayer, just to blunt our rational conscience of wrongdoing; let's face it, the christian commitment demands honesty, hard rock honesty, painful honesty sometimes, humbleness, meekness, sincerity; nothing as dangerous as deceiving ourselves. Our first line of defense? Honesty, without it even prayer may become a dangerous deception.
ReplyDeleteA very loaded question. What you're talking about here is something that many people struggle with.
ReplyDeleteI would offer this when talking about it.
* We have to start with the premise that God is a loving God (because if not then this whole exercise is irrelevent)
* If God is Love and we know for a fact that there is suffering in this world then it must be true that God's Love and suffering can coexist
* If God Loves all God's creatures, then we can assume two things:
o God loves some creatures more and thus bad things are more likely to happen to those that are Loved less.
o God Loves all creatures equally and bad things happen to all creatures equally as a cause of Sin and the Earth's laws. Though of course at times it can feel like more bad happens to one person it must be other causes, not God deciding that some are evil and deserve it.
I'm not going to raise one position over the other, just food for thought.
well said. and I think most "believers" would ascribe to your second assumtion. So if we go with that one, and we agree that bad things happen to good people as a result of sin and the Earth's laws, then why should someone pray for "intervention" from God?
ReplyDeleteThe whole point of the "First LIne of Defense" above is simply to remind us that when we have access to God in prayer, why do we so often use prayer and seeking God as a last resort? Why not start there? Jesus gave the idea that God was anxious to hear from us. I have no idea of how prayer works, or if more prayer is better! Surely if God is "just like Jesus" then I can't imagine him waiting till we pile up enough prayer to somehow get his attention. I believe he is intimately interested in all of our lives. If he knows the number of hairs on our head surely he's interested in hearing from us! Going there first certainly doesn't stop us from going somewhere else second! Who knows, he might even be leading us to whatever is our second line of defense. --Andy
ReplyDeleteOk. I like that clarifacation much better. I understand seeking God in prayer as a "someone to talk to and always be there to listen". However, what I don't understand is people that pray or solicit other's prayers for help or healing as if God is picking and choosing who He will help or heal today. In other words, the more people that pray for them, the more likely God will pick them to help or heal. Doesn't quite fit the picture of a loving God does it? Do people ever really stop and consider what message they are sending when they say "I'll pray for you"; as if THEY will be the the one to tip God's scale in your favor. It may just be a "polite Christian custom" meaning "I'm thinking of you", but still it creates a cunundrum, because I think most people that say it actually beleive THEIR prayer will move God.
ReplyDeleteSo why do you pray?
The new testament says to come to God with everything in prayer. While i do admit that my first thought for cure for a headache is drinking lots of water, why shouldn't i pray? why couldn't God heal my pain? it also says that God posses incomparable power, and that everything, that's right, EVERYTHING works for the will of the Lord. so maybe I'm meant to have a headache. life will go on, but perhaps from that prayer I'll be a little closer to God.
ReplyDeleteCameron: I don't think the question is "Do I pray OR do I find relief through medical means." It's not an either/or. We should always bring everything to our God in prayer but also understand that God works through medical advances. And though I am firm in my belief that God can take any situation and make good things come from it, I would strongly argue against the thought that "EVERYTHING works for the will of the Lord." This would suggest that it is the LORD'S WILL that babies are born dead, children are abused, multitudes die of cancer and disease, His children are at war, etc. God's WILL has ALWAYS been that we live full, healthy lives. However, we live in a chaotic world of sin, which unfortunately comes with its own natural consequences.
ReplyDelete