Our Battle Against the AM'N-ITES by Ernie

by Ernie

What if God has a truly abundant life for you, for me, that we resist? (Did you read the last blog that was a clip from C.S.Lewis about the stubborn toy soldiers?)

 It may be that we resist change. Maybe we resist BEING changed. "I'm just this way." "All in my family are like this; we can't change." " I've always  _______ (had a temper, been a poor student, had anxieties, been the one in charge, etc  FILL IN THE BLANK.)  

Or maybe we are just too lazy to take God up on his offer to help us change.

It is so tempting to feel guilty and discouraged when we fall back into bad habits or sin.  That is an attack of the AM'N-ITES. You know: "I JUST AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR GOD TO LOVE ME OR USE ME."  

It may be that we just don’t want to fight the fight that it would take to resist the character traits that are damaging to ourselves, our spiritual growth and the purpose God has for us.

Are you like me? Sometimes you have allowed the "ITES" to defeat you? You know the 'ites' don't you.

In the bible, the people of Israel always had to fight off some “ite” like the Hittites, the Ammonites, the Moabites or some other "ite".   What in your life are the “ites” you have to struggle with the most?   

Something as simple as getting up in the morning and reading scripture and praying is Soooo difficult for me. When I do it, I feel so much better for the whole day but on a daily basis, I just resist doing it—allow myself to snooze those extra minutes or to grab the newspaper first then never get back to my time with the Lord.

What are the little battles, what "ites" challenge you--battles that you know need to be fought inside yourself but you give in.  Are you like me and just cave with no resistence and never even think to ask God to help.

At holidays, like this week-end with families, I think I’m not alone in that I have trouble resisting the “enemy of gluttony” (might we call it the "glutton-ites"). Last holiday, I didn’t fight a battle at all—just capitulated without a single resistant blow and never even thought of asking God to fight the battle for me against my own weak self-will.  I just said oh, I can never resist this so why try.

In the book by McGee (Search for Significance) He has a chart to look at about how we allow false beliefs to trip us up and keep us from the truly abundant life God has for us.

He lists those as

• The Performance Trap
• Approval Addict
• The Blame Game
• Shame

Perform-ites.

How many times have you heard the instruction to do our best? Have you ever thought of that as a trap to a person who already has a tendency to become a perfectionist.

In McGee’s book he calls this the Performance Trap.  This one false idea can lead to Perfectionism, Avoiding Risks, Resentment, Anxiety and Fear, Pride, Depression, Low Motivation, Sexual Dysfunction, Chemical Abuse. 

How are we to fight the Performance-ites.

It might not be the Perform-ites as a whole. It might be the Fear-ites, Resent-ites or something else. 

Mine are the impatient-ites, the expectation-ites and the fear-of-rejection-ites.

Here is an example of what has happened when I don't call on the Lord to fight my battles for me.

For the last few days I’ve been preparing home and meals for others and I had found myself having expectations as to how they would act toward my “generous” giving of this to them.  But I had loved ones who were moody (I don't know what was going in in their heads and I did care)  and if they did offer to help were doing it with what I perceived as an “attitude”. So then I got an attitude!  Yesterday, when one person had moodiness and wasn’t "appropriately grateful" for how sacrificial I had been to arrange to do something with her, I lost it and yelled at her. And kept yelling. Yelling that she could control her moods. That she didn’t have to be at the mercy of a mood but could choose to act differently. Note this was all shouted in a manner so loud that I later had a head ache. Yeah, My loud mood!  So my battle with an enemy I know---the expectation-ites—I didn’t even pause I just let this enemy conquer me.

We have personal battles with ites and we have them as a culture. At Christmas time, a person was stampeded to death by shoppers. At the malls in this nation we’ve seen some behavior that would let us know that many people don’t fight their personal ugly characteristics but let them conqueror them. That-is-my-right-ites, things-will-make-me-happy-ites.

What character traits do you think we in the US?

But today, as I stand here, I’m still struggling with that battle with my ites.

So would you all pause and write down on a slip of paper one or more of the ites that you battle with.  Just hold the paper for a minute.

How are we to battle these ites? 

There is an interesting paradox as Christians. McGee would have us look at our stumbling blocks and read and apply scripture to see that God is not going to deal in the currency with which we try to buy our OK-ness.  Our “being good”. What are we to do then?

At Georgetown Retirement Village whenever the residents participate in some activity they get tickets that can be exchanged for tissue, soap, lotion, etc. It is as if we think of our accomplishments, our being perfect at something, as being our tickets. And we try to turn those in to God and he says, those are not usable with him. It is as worthless as trying to buy something with Georgetown tickets or  Bulgarian money at a store here in Wichita. So there each of us is. We have no money with which to buy God’s  help with our struggle against our ememy ITES. No currency with which to buy “heaven” or the “abundant life”. 

Bruce Wilkinson the author of Prayer of Jabez and other books says in this book Experiencing Spiritual Breakthroughs that we are to leave ourselves alone.  NOT focus on self.

So what are we to do?  How do we fight the ITES of our lives if we have no currency with which to buy God’s help? 

Here are some quotes from great Christians in the Wilkinson book:

Dear Heavenly Father: I’m working on a puzzle, pure and simple. It is I.

Dear Searching Child: Here is the puzzle's answer, pure and simple. It is I.

Ethelyn A. Shattuck

Self…is not to be annihilated, but to be rightly centered in God.

Oswald Chambers

If I am half-full of myself there is no way I can be full of God.

Richard Owen Roberts

God has provided it. Imagine that the Lord walks up to you and says that your currency is no good but he will fight your battle against the ites for you. You don’t need to do a thing, buy a thing repay anything or accomplish a thing.

Will you accept the Lord's help--or let your pride say like the child in the commercial a number of years ago--PLEASE FATHER! I'd rather do it MYSELF!. It is pride, you know, that causes us to not accept the free gift from God.

Read II Chronicles 20: 11

This is what the LORD says to you: 'Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's. ¹⁶ Tomorrow march down against them. .... ¹⁷ You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.' "

Ephesians 6: 11 ff

¹¹Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
   ¹²For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
   ¹³Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  (Not go do something! )
   ¹⁴Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
   ¹⁵And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
   ¹⁶Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
   ¹⁷And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
   ¹⁸Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

You see. You don’t have to fight the ITES. God will do the battle for you. Your job is to hand the battle to the Lord.

Now this week, contact one other person, preferably one to whom you are not related. What you two are going to do is to share with one another the ITE battle that each of you wants the OTHER person to pray for the Lord to fight this week. Share with each other then in prayer for each other, pray, “Lord, I hand over my battle with _________ to you.”  The other person then says AMEN (which means "so be it").

This week, you will be prayed for by your partner and you are to pray for your partner. Pray that she or he can say the battle belongs to the Lord--that each can hand the battle with their “ites” to the Lord and pray for each that you will be able to put on the full armor of God and just STAND and watch the victory of the Lord against your ITE. 

The Obstinate Toy Soldiers

From Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

"…The two kinds of life are now not only different but actually opposed. The natural life in each of us is something self -centered, something that wants to be petted and admired, to take advantage of other lives, to exploit the whole universe. …It is afraid of the light and air of the spiritual world, just as people who have been brought up to be dirty are afraid of a bath.  And in a sense it is quite right.  It knows that if the spiritual life gets hold of it, all its self-centeredness and self-will are going to be killed and it is ready to fight tooth and nail to avoid that. Did you ever think when you were a child what fun it would be if your toys could come to life?  Well suppose you could really have brought them to life. Imagine turning a tin soldier into a real little man. It would involve turning the tin into flesh. 

And suppose the tin soldier did not like it.  

He is not interested in flesh; all he sees is that the tin is being spoilt.  He thinks you are killing him. He will do everything he can to prevent you.  He will not be made into a man if he can help it. What you would have done about that tin soldier I do not know.  But what God did about us was this.  The Second Person in God, the Son, became human Himself: was born into the world as an actual man-a real man of a particular height, with hair of a particular colour. The Eternal Being, who knows everything and created the whole universe, became not only a man but before that a baby and before that a fetus inside a woman's body.  If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab."

AM I OBSTINATE WHEN THE LOVING GOD WANTS TO MAKE ME SO MUCH MORE?