I am learning my triggers. We all have them. Things or situations (or hormones!) that tempt our old selfish nature to stand up and seize control. My clinched jaw warns me of my wayward heart.
Triggers come in all shapes and sizes. Two of my own? The clock and the mess. I know. How trivial.
When I have to race the clock to get myself and three kids dressed, fed, and in the car...with a touch of joy, my jaw clinches. Or when I scan our home to find toys covering nearly every square inch of the floor and dishes lining the counter tops, all while tripping on stray shoes in the hallway and brushing crumbs off of my bare feet, my jaw clinches.
This is going to sound so "churchy," so strange to some, but we are in the midst of an all-out spiritual battle. I told you. It's wild. But if we fail to recognize its reality, we will live our days in defeat.
The enemy is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may destroy. He cannot steal our identity in Christ as children of the King. But he purposefully aims to destroy our witness and obliterate our experience of the promised peace.
And here's the thing, he knows our triggers. He knows those things that set us off--that push us to the edge where attitudes can get ugly. If we float through our moments without awareness of the war, we will be taken prisoner.
Living enslaved to the flesh and its reactionary schizophrenia is not life. It's bondage. In Him we are set free from the power of sin. We are not at the mercy of the trigger. He declares us to be overcomers and conquerors.
But we must engage the battle.
Our offensive weapon is His Word. I know. It's crazy, possibly foreign to some. But His Word must linger on our tongues. It is the sword to slay the one vying for our brief days. It is lifted by faith and swung in the strength of His indwelling Spirit.
Sister-friend, stand firm. Walk this day on purpose. Make those triggers bow in defeat.
Bringing it home... (a new section on practicalities)
What are your flesh-triggers?
If you haven't yet figured that out, then just ask the One who knows you perfectly to reveal, maybe even through a clinched jaw.
How can we be victors when the triggers come?
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