Life is to be lived, savored and cherished. Its ups and downs stoke the flame of adventure. Each are presented opportunities to know Him in the myriad of emotions and experiences. For life we will give account, a very costly "talent to invest." And as it is within the parable of the three servants, so it is for us today. There is a true war to either invest that talent or bury it. And one is vying for our wrong choice.

The adversary of life tries to capture us in a struggle to save our life, where God calls us to live living - to the utmost. The enemy's goal is to get us involved and entangled with the fear of losing our life rather than living it. A stranglehold that chokes out energy and zeal earmarked for living. This fear dims our vision and limits the scope of our seeing. Obscuring reality, causing us to feel like a starving beggar tossed a scrap of bread or an old tarnished coin. We scurry like dogs to get what we must have to survive, in the face of the Truth that we are rich, royalty with an attentive Kingly Lover.

It is all perception and whose voice we are listening to. One voice casts darkness, tempting us to bitterness and destitution. The Other reveals reality made evident in Himself. To live under the shadow of Satan is to grovel in guilt, believe in sickness and turn from your Trust. All the evils from his chambers have accusing fingers pointed towards God. You become infected with this foe's ailment: bitterness and hatred for God. It is inevitable, you can't entertain his ideas and not contract his disease. Satan's Enemy becomes your enemy and his blame becomes yours.

All this can be done quite simply, just a choice here and a choice there. You can walk veiled, thinking you are not afraid but the mania of fear speaks more loudly than our words.

You can spend your life saving your life

or you can spend your life living your life.

The manic frenzy to prevent a punitive god from giving you some debilitating or deadly malady. That's one way of saving your life, scampering about hunting remedies to prevent God from giving you the cruelty you know you deserve but will not merely confess. Another way, the system of self deception: refuse the light of truth and imagine God is your admirer. Separate yourself from your sin, weakness and evil, creating yourself perfectly pious. Sitting at your throne, dictating what God will see or not see, what He will say or not say. Or try this one on for size: blind Him with your service, doing whatever YOU decide will achieve His pleasure.

To live fully, you must be who you are, where you are and allow Truth to shine on you.

You're existing under the rays of His Light, not in fear of His punitive action, not trying to second guess His judging hand. It is trust that He is God. He is able to bring you where He wants you to be, even in the face of your weaknesses and sins. It is living in freedom from self-consciousness, self deception or self condemnation. When you have the fear of a punishing God, it's like a cloak strangling you in a vice-like grip Fear is a binding of your own freedoms, preventing you from being able to breathe and express life. This is to bury your talent, the talent of living. To bury life is to kill it and cover the evidence of its murder.

When you look at Him with suspicion it caps your expression of life. God is a God of liberty and mercy. Our God is trying to uncap life, not crush it, give life not take it away.

Copyright ©  John Enslow