Temptation to be Passive in Stress – Episode #839

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Temptation to be Passive in Stress
Episode #839
01/08/2023

Walk and talk with John Enslow
When life becomes too difficult, the enemy tempt us to walk away from our Solution, which is Jesus.

Hey guys! So I’m back home and actually getting ready to go next week down to Florida to see Charles and my parents. It’s gonna be an interesting trip. I’m really looking forward to it. But today I wanted to come and talk about something. In my last podcast, I was talking about being active. About actively bringing in the Kingdom. About not laying back passively and having the bludgeoning of man come against us and just run us over. But that we are to be active. That we’re to be active in prayer, that we’re to be active in how we handle all these situations.

You know when life becomes too difficult, the enemy tempt us to walk away from our Solution, which is Jesus. It’s not a overt thing, it’s very covert. As I’ve been going through some overwhelming situations in the last couple months, the temptation has been for me to lay back my passionate pursuit. To just lay back, to settled back, to rest. Life has said, “It’s too much just rest!” And that’s the enemy’s temptation. The enemy’s temptation of me is to not do my daily disciplines, to not pursue the Lord as a truly long to do.

And so the enemy is trying to covertly just get me to slowly, lay back, slowly lay down discipline, slowly…read the Word less, pray less, just rest because it’s too much. “Everything is too much and you need rest Just relax! Don’t wake up early in the morning to spend time with God, just relax!” And that has been the temptation. The temptation is, this is too much. I’m due a little ease, a little laid backness. But I know that that is never going to be the case.

The Lord wants me to take an active position in relationship with Him. He’s not wanting me to go do great exploits and work. He’s not looking for my performance, but He’s looking for my relationship. He’s looking for me to stay connected. He’s looking for me to remain unified and in union with Him. And oddly the difficulty of life, the trials of life, tempt me to step back and not pursue that. And that’s just not acceptable. I can’t do that. I cannot lay back and start easing my walk just because it’s difficult, just because it’s hard, just because I am in a stressful situation.

I mean logically we can go and say oh well if you’re in in the great need, you need to seek Him harder, further, more. But that’s not what the temptation is. The temptation is just to sleep a little longer, just rest. “Oh don’t you need to watch some Netflix, don’t you need to look at Facebook some more? Just take it easy! Why are you stressing yourself out.”

But I know that what is my vital necessity and what the need of my heart is, is that I would seek Him more. That I would look to Him more. Not in performance. Again, I’m not looking to do things, I just need to be a relationship with Him. I need to be connected with Him and that’s how I’m pushing back the enemy right now.

I talked about in the last podcast the bludgeoning of man and the schemes of man and how the financial systems, the political systems, the cultural systems are all coming against us. And at times it feels like you want to retreat. Go off and retreat, get away from all that, don’t get the fight.  But I know that that’s not what the Lord’s asking us to do. I know the Lord’s asking us to pursue Him. To go forward, to actively engage Him in prayer and in communion. It’s relational.

That’s what I’m gonna do and I never want to take the passive role. I always want to be moving forward. It doesn’t necessarily mean I have to be doing things, what it does mean is my heart has to be engaged and that’s where I’m going. I’m gonna engage my heart even in the stress, even in the troubles. I’m going to seek Him and I’m gonna find Him because He wants to be found and He wants to be sought and He wants to remain connected with me and that’s beautiful.

So I love y’all. I appreciate you and I will be talking to you soon.

Temptation to be Passive in Stress – Episode #839 – Shulamite Podcast

In stress and overwhelming situations the temptation can be to lay back our pursuit of Christ and take it easy because life is just too hard!