Our daily resistance

 

We are in a daily resistance struggle.

Resist is a good word. Resistance is good when it is against evil. God told us to resist the devil (and he will flee!) Injustice is evil. God is a God of justice and he does not tolerate injustice. He tells us to stand against injustice and stand with the oppressed, weak and marginalized.

Sometimes it all looks like hard and heavy work.

It almost feels like you should not be happy or joyful or enjoying life when you feel the weight of the pain in our world.

I was thinking about that the other day and then thought, no! That would never be the answer or what God would want or ask of us. The joy of the Lord is our strength. So, without the joy of the Lord we lose his strength and then can’t find the energy to resist the devil and his evil works in our world.

It got me thinking that joy, life, hope, faith, love, compassion are all resistance in the face of evil and injustice.

It’s a tension we hold in balance. We don’t stop living, because just getting up every day is an act of resistance. But we can absolutely feel the weight of the pain of our world at the same time. We need to – it drives us to prayer, to faith and to action. We need to hold the 2 things in balance, at the same time.

Reminds me of the lines from a song we sing in church – My weapon is a melody. Praise is the water my enemies drown in.

He is Jesus, all our hope is in him.

The weapons we fight with when we are in a war/struggle are not the weapons of this world. They are the exact opposite. The weapons I have at my disposal have the power of God to destroy the camps of the enemy. This includes arguments and every opinion that sets itself up against the knowledge of Christ. (And that's anything that sets itself up against anything to do with Jesus. It includes actions that go against the new covenant, the greatest commandments and the Beatitudes.) We take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

Joy and life are weapons. Open your eyes and your heart to beautiful moments around you. It’s part of the abundance God has promised. Jesus said he came to give us life, and life to the full. Let it fill you and satisfy you. We need to live each day to the full as an act of resistance against death, evil, strongholds, arguments and opinions against God. (That would include injustice against the vulnerable). That's power. It’s not weakness. We need to keep our thoughts in check and in obedience to Christ.

Raise your voice and shout. Make some noise. Take up space. Raise the banner. Let the world hear that you stand with the marginalized and with the vulnerable.

Be alive. Be awake and be alert to the suffering of others. It will mean feeling their pain, but we need that to push us to action. We need to feel their heartache and have our hearts broken. Don’t sleep and ignore and look away or ignore them. Standing in solidarity means standing close and lending support, love and comfort in their distress. 

Let's do our peacemaking work and create a safer, more peace filled world. Be alive and resist everything that does not line up with who Jesus is and what his kingdom stands for.

Top artwork by Evelien Burger.
Bottom photo: Author's own