Oppression

Yesterday was Citiprayer it was interesting. God spoke to me I think. The theme for the prayer session was overcoming oppression. The first thing that I said when I heard the theme was that it sounds way too spiritual. It conjured up images of lots of shouting and 'warfare' and the like. However, I think God corrected me. What is wrong with too spiritual? Too often I don't live my life nearly spiritual enough! We must be people who 'walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh.'

So I began to think about what oppression is. I don't know how you would define it, but it seems to me that anything that is abnormally interfering with our daily pursuit of Christ is oppression. Anything that sucks our focus off of chasing Him. For me this could be finances, my health, day to day thoughts of insecurity and doubt. For you they could be relational, financial, spiritual, physical or something else entirely. These are attacks - things that are being brought against you in an attempt to really mess you up.

What I realized in my life is that I am not quick enough to recognize those things in a spiritual context. What I do very quickly is chalk these things up and then line them up with things that I am doing wrong in my life. (Which is valid. For example my finances are easy to attack, because I am horrible with my money.) However, this initial reaction is terribly, terribly dangerous! Because as soon as I start identifying my life problems as something that I am doing incorrectly, I will begin to identify the solutions as something that I can do correctly.

This is a trap of the enemy. And, for me at least, it works far too often. I take all of my life's problems and issues diagnose them and then begin to prescribe myself medication. I set up a system that I am going to follow (for a week) I make a renewed commitment to disciplining myself, etc, etc, etc. Oftentimes I do this without praying about them. Not because I want to cut God out of the deal, but because "I know what He will say." HA! This is SO DANGEROUS! We/I cut ourselves off from the SOURCE of the grace, mercy, wisdom and love that we need to get through something.

We must continue to pray for perspective. God is the Creator of Heaven and Earth. He is All-Knowing, All-Powerful and All-Merciful. He can handle any problem that we have. He is big enough. But on the flip side He is also the God that humbled Himself became flesh and dwelt among us. There is no detail about our life that is too small for Him to be interested in or care about. God, help me.