It's Just A Battle Scar

Desert winds whip hard, but the holy whisper is stronger than the wilderness howl.

Sin stings as pelting sand in a desert storm, but I don't feel it much any more. Maybe it's because sin loses it's sting when it's power is denied. 

Wind

Storm

Something's changed, and I don't think it's the battles. No. What's changed is the way I fight them. 

My posture has changed; the direction I face and the way I lean. 

My strength has changed, too.  

Face the storm, and see the face of the One who is in control of it. When the storm charges and the enemy threatens to thrust you down, lean into the strength of the everlasting arms. 

"The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you" (Deuteronomy 33:27).

Powerful Lean

Does it always look like this is true? No; and it doesn't always feel like it's true, either. 

Does it have to? No. Yet, I find that faith changes the way I see the storms. It even changes the way I feel about sin. 

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's tangible, real evidence of things not seen. Faith proves hope, and it's not mysterious. 

It's as real as the ground I walk on and the gravity that keeps me upright. 

Walking

It's as real as the wounds in Jesus' hands, feet, and side which sin inflicted with the aim to destroy faith, but Jesus used the wounds to build faith in the doubting.

Isn't it possible that the wounds inflicted by sin may become a means by which faith is given? Hope restored?

Didn't Thomas say, "Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe"? 

He did. It's written in the Book of John 20:25.

We're told in the next verse that a week later Jesus said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

Thomas responded, "My Lord and my God!"

Something changed for Thomas. Maybe what changed for him is what has changed for me-the way I look at sin.

On the redeemed, sin leaves battle scars, that's all. That's how I see it.

And I imagine that when Thomas began reaching his hand out, he realized that he could not touch the marks left by sin without touching Jesus, the victor over it. 

Reaching

Sin is denied power when I reach for Jesus. 

The power of sin over me is denied as I love God more than I hate sin.

Oh, I'm aware of sin. Of course, it happens. It leaves it's mark. 

But it left it's mark on the One who stripped it of it's deadly power, and He's the One who marks my life. 

written by: Carolyn-Elizabeth Roehrig