Crucified Hearts

As we age, the battle with evil, within and without, does not lessen but increases, for we fight on fields we never knew existed when we were younger and spiritually immature. We see things, see through shadows that once hid the enemy, that is, if we have continued to grow as children of light. Though our eyes my dim, the light of God’s truth burns through the darkness that daily threatens to engulf us. Our call is to walk in the light as He is in the light, to walk with Him who is the Light of Life.

The devil is without mercy in his deceptions and seductions. He takes advantage of every weakness, every inherited and cultivated tendency toward evil that exists in our body of death. He works to blind us, that we would have eyes that cannot see. He works to deafen our ears to the voice of God, to the Word of God that would expose and defeat him in his war against us.

But we have the wonder of redeeming grace, that our strength is in our weakness. The weaker we know ourselves to be the stronger we may become in God’s strength, that is, if we see things as they really are so that we live by daily surrender to the Lordship of Christ, our Warrior King who not only leads us, but fights by our side.

Therefore, if we boast, it will be of our weakness in ourselves which becomes our strength in the cross of Christ.

“For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.” 2 Cor. 13.4

And again,

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Cor. 12.9-11

I’ll close with the lyrics of an Iris Dement song, “God walks the dark hills”

“God walks the dark hills
The ways, the by ways
He walks through the billows
Of life’s troubled sea
He walks through the cold dark night
The shadows of midnight
God walks the dark hills
Just to guide you and me

(CHORUS)
God walks the dark hills
To guide my footsteps
He walks everywhere
By night and by day
He walks in the silence
On down the highway
God walks the dark hills
To show me the way

God walks in the storm
The rain and the sunshine
He walks on the billows
On through glimmering light
Helps us walk up the mountain so high
Cross our rivers through valleys
God walks the dark hills
‘Cause He loves you and me.”