A Mate In Arms

Hebrews 12

“I put up a shield of faith over a place in your heart where a dart might risk entering. I shield you quickly, because I know you. I know what types of things hurt, have hurt before, or will yet hurt you. And the goal of this game of life isn’t to get as hurt as possible and come up to your Heavenly Father’s arms bruised, hurt and bleeding, but actually, to get as many wins for Christ as you can.

Sure, the fussy children get more “comfort talks”. They have to keep going back and hearing it again, “It’s okay. I’m with you still,” said for the 500^th time or whatever. But the whiners aren’t making all that much forward progress as they have to keep nursing their hurts and reopening their bandages to see how their hurts are doing and re-crying about them, again and again. Just getting through life is exhausting. But they never really get past grade one in the spirit. Sure they get tougher in some ways, but who did they bring along with them? If their own time was so filled with their own needs and whimpering, there’s not a whole lot of room in a life left for helping others along in their journey into a closer relationship with Jesus.

So that’s why you need and want someone like me. I help there to be less to fuss about, so more forward progress can be made. I shield you from hurts to your heart and mind that are really left-field and aren’t going to help you get near to the goal, to any goal.

So keep me near as a shield by calling on the keys of praise, the wings of praise, the victory squadron.

I love you.

A mate in arms.”

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”