It’s Friday, ya’ll! We made it another week. We lived, we worked, we prayed, we grew, and now it’s time to laugh.
Tim Hawkins shows his serious side for just a minute in this one. He and his wife struggled through 2020 like the rest of us, but Jesus was there with them, just like He is for all of us.
But, thankfully, he hasn’t lost his sense of humor.
Happy Friday, everyone, and have a blessed weekend.
I recently watched Behind Enemy Lines again, and there were so many spiritual parallels I had to share what God showed me.
Even though it’s a 20-year-old movie and surely the statute of limitations for spoilers must have run out by now, I’ll try not to give away anything too important in case you haven’t seen it.
Owen Wilson plays Lt. Chris Burnett, an American naval flight officer stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Adriatic sea during the Bosnian War.
For Lt. Burnett, being a soldier, so far, has been a lot of drills, training, exercises, and routine assignments and he resents it. It hasn’t been the thrill ride he thought it would be, so he’s handed in a letter of intent to leave the Navy to his commanding officer, Admiral Reigart, played by Gene Hackman.
The admiral tries to make him understand the importance of his training, but Burnett’s not impressed. He’s done.
Admiral Reigart decides the lieutenant needs a little discipline, so he assigns him, along with another pilot, to a routine mission on Christmas day, but the situation soon turns into far more than anyone expected.
The title says it all: behind enemy lines.
When we look out at our world today we may feel like we’re behind enemy lines. There is warring all around us, fighting, hatred, violence, attacks on the Christian faith. The whole world seems out of control and we feel like we’re in a place we don’t understand and don’t belong.
And the truth is we are behind enemy lines and we always have been. Much of the world has been experiencing it, and lately it’s become far more apparent to us than it was before. The curtain’s been drawn back a bit and we’re seeing the havoc wreaked by the enemy in the ugliness of the sin in the world on display in our own backyard.
We’re seeing the spiritual warfare Paul talked about in his second letter to the church in Corinth.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds…” (2 Cor. 10:3-4)
And because we’re in the midst of spiritual warfare, an object of the enemy of God, we are soldiers in that war. Paul reiterated that in 2 Timothy and in Philemon:
“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who enlisted him as a soldier.” (2 Tim 2:3-4)
“…to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier…” (Philemon 1-2a)
If God has called us into faith through Christ, we are soldiers in a spiritual war that’s been going on since the Garden of Eden.
As soldiers, God’s been training us, preparing us to be strong in the faith, to have courage to weather the battles. We grow from discipline to discipline until we are changed into the likeness of His Son, the perfect soldier, who was our example of enduring warfare.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)
We’ve all read that and maybe, like Lt. Burnett, we haven’t seen how we can have joy in our training, how there could possibly be any purpose in our suffering. We haven’t fully understood that our trials are our testing, our discipline, teaching and training us to be mature in the faith, to persevere in trials, to trust God more and more to give us wisdom and understanding as we face the next hardship, and the next one, and the next… We don’t know what we’ll face, but God does, and He knows what He’s training us for.
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.” (Hebrews 12:11-12)
Whatever trials we’ve gone through or are going through right now or will go through tomorrow, don’t let them be for nothing. Let them train us. Let us humble ourselves under our Father’s mighty and wise hand to make us disciplined soldiers in His army, fighting His way with the spiritual armor God’s equipped us with.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 6:12-13
Let us then, in Christ, strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees. In other words, let us put aside our complacency, any weakness of faith, any unbelief or fear, put on our armor and be strong and courageous as we stand to face our spiritual enemy, knowing we’ve been trained and we are equipped, and in Christ we have the victory.
Oh Precious Heavenly Father, we praise and magnify your name. You are mighty and holy and worthy of all praise.
Father, we ask for forgiveness for our sins, and we thank you for giving your Son to take the punishment that should have been ours.
Thank you for blessing us far more than we could ever deserve. A right relationship with you is all we need, but through it you’ve done so much more than we could have ever imagined.
Father, I want to lift up our country again to you this week. We need you so much, and we know there is nothing we can do in our own strength to change anything. We desperately look to you and pray for your grace and mercy and the pouring out of your Holy Spirit as we walk into the events of the week.
We pray you would go before us and bind the hand of the enemy, that you would let your peace and rest be in control of our land, especially in our nation’s capital. We pray your power would be felt and your light would shine in the darkness.
This week and beyond, may your Church, with repentant and thankful hearts, constantly lift up our voices together to you, in faith, knowing you hear us and will answer us, as we pray for salvation among the lost and revival within your church, and that you would give us the wisdom, strength, courage, and hope we’ll need in the coming days and years.
May we abide in you so we can be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, producing the fruit of magnifying and glorifying the name of Jesus wherever we go. May we do in our world today what the early church did in theirs, and be your witnesses in our homes, our neighborhoods, and to the ends of the earth.
In Jesus’ holy and precious name we pray, amen.
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. We praise you for all you are and for all you do. You are our King above all kings and we look to you and you alone to provide for us, to give us courage, to open and close doors, to show us the way. You are not only the God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come, but You are our Father who lovingly cares for us in Your power and victory.
Thank You for the strength You give us as we walk through long trials. We sometimes get tired and weary, but as we hold out a hand to You, You lift us up.
You invite us to take your yoke upon us so you can lift the weight of our trials, and that through them we can learn from You and Your gentle and humble heart, and find rest for our weary souls.
Father, help us persevere through the prolonged difficulties we face. Help us continue to keep our focus on you, daily dying to our flesh and being filled with your Holy Spirit, seeing through your eyes of grace and mercy.
Help us not get restless as we wait for your deliverance, but give us patience and your peace that surpasses all understanding.
Fill us with your joy and hope at what’s to come, and through them may we encourage and build each other up until that day.
Thank you, Father, for your love and faithfulness to keep all your promises. May our faith rest confidently in You.
In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. You are the omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God. You are faithful to hear our prayers, and we thank you for hearing our prayer today.
Father, we lift up to you those who are facing life-altering and life-threatening illnesses.
For those who know you, we ask that you would renew their strength and hope. We pray you would comfort them and fill them with your peace that passes all understanding. We pray you would surround them with people who support them with love and friendship. We ask that you would also give strength and hope for their loved ones and caregivers.
For those who don’t yet know you, we pray you would reveal yourself to them in a very personal way. Maybe they’ve blamed you for what they’re going through. Maybe they’re angry, or lost and just don’t know where to turn. We pray you would not allow the enemy to fill their minds with lies.
Father, we know what a personal and compassionate God you are, and we ask that you would show them that you know them and you love them.
We pray you would open their eyes and turn their hearts toward you, that they would receive you as their Lord, their Savior, their Hope to walk with them through this time, giving them all they need and more.
We pray you would remove all fear and help them keep their focus on You, the God Who is bigger than anything they’ll face here on earth. We pray you would give them strength and courage to walk in confidence with you each day.
Father, you are also the Great Physician. You created our bodies and you can heal them. If it be your will, Lord, we ask that you would do miracles and grant healing and restoration. We pray you would open doors and move mountains to do those things that need to be done.
We pray you would give the doctors and nurses your wisdom, your skill, and your compassion.
We pray, Lord, that you would also open doors to provide financially, and that all debt is paid.
Father, we pray you would be glorified in all these circumstances. What the enemy has meant for evil, we pray you would use for your good. We lay it all at your feet, trusting you, and we thank you ahead of time for what you’re going to do.
In Jesus’ precious and holy name we pray, amen.