Tuesday March 8, 2011

Speaker: Ben Sigman

Theme: Enemy Love

Weekend Music links on iTunes: All to You - Lincoln Brewster, Happy Day - Tim Hughes, Hosanna - Hillsong, Attention - Know Hope Collective

Think: There is a mechanism within the limbic system of the brain that is designed to react to a threat. When we are faced with a threat, the brain is programmed to react with flight or fight - which ever seems the best to the brain at the time. Often, these reactions come so quickly and involuntary that it is only after we have reacted that we can give some thought to whether that action was the best thing to do/say at the time.

Jesus, however seems to be able to “over-ride” the programming. For example, He taught the following, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.  If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” These are all circumstances that would negatively impact the hearer and would naturally make a person want to fight back or run away. But Jesus gives a higher alternative- one that surpasses our animal instincts and taps into our spiritually transformed selves.

I want the over-ride authority too. I don’t want to just live by what comes naturally to me. I want to be able to live by Jesus’ supernatural power to respond like God. In so doing, I want to have a part to play in God’s redemptive plan to seek and save the lost. The world will never know this captivating, life-changing, enemy-loving love unless we are willing to show it to them.

Pray: Lord, you have given me a new mind and made me a new creation. You have enabled me to live by a higher law- a law of love. Show me how to live by that day to day.

Do: Ask God to give you a space before the reaction in order to think about your response to hurts, threats and challenges.

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.