By: Elizabeth Haarberg

Division or Communion

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

The word on the street is we all need to take a stand, pick a side, decide where we land. This is not merely true; it’s imperative for our faith. However, it is not defined by the world’s standards.

^“…choose this day whom you will serve…But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15 English Standard Version

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Matthew 16:24 English Standard Version

There is a choice, but it’s not political or emotional; it’s spiritual. To decide whether to follow Jesus is only part of the journey. We are then instructed to become like Jesus through the Holy Spirit residing in us. As our lives are transformed through the Holy Spirit in us, we can fight the real fight, which is the spiritual battle.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Ephesians 6:12 English Standard Version

Watching the Christian world be torn apart by battles they were not meant to fight is heart breaking. All people who believe in Jesus as the resurrected Christ are on the same side. The battle is not against our neighbor; it’s against the forces that create the division.

I encourage all of us to rise above the world’s battles, the divisive struggle that Satan would like for us to lower ourselves to fight. Our job is to bring heaven to Earth so we can help others “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Can we look at our neighbor who votes a different way or views the world through a different lens and love that person as Christ loves them?

This is a call to arms, but not in a violent way–in a more challenging way: To love our neighbor as God loves us.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:30-31 English Standard Version

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