Area of Conflict

Area of Conflict
By Bob Mumford www.lifechangers.org

For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. (Roman 7:19)

The area of conflict is identified as the dotted circle on the diagram. It is the actual battleground where we engage the Seven Giants, choose to follow Jesus, and keep ourselves in the exact center of Father’s Love. There are opportunities in the battle to go our own way and preserve the right to ourselves in a manner similar to the way Jesus was tempted in the wilderness with bread, power, and possessions. We are tempted to either turn right toward worldly, sensual things; or left, toward religious activity and eros payoffs, seeking to get something from God or prove something to Him.

What Satan met in the Person of our Lord was Christ’s love for the Father. He was unwilling to share or trade His love for anything that was being offered. It was an issue of Agape, not willpower. Jesus’ defense was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” He knew that “Love is as strong as death” and that it would hold Him. He embraced God’s yoke and then taught us how to take hold of it ourselves:

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

Our love for God is what protects us. It keeps us from making wrong choices in the arena of conflict. When we take His yoke upon us, He will be bearing more than the other half of the weight. He will walk with us through the same temptations because He already conquered them. If we seem to journey up either of the side roads, He will resist us until we choose to come back to abide on the right road home. He is determined and unrelenting to bring us into the freedom of Agape and He will remain faithful even when we are rebellious and resentful.

Preferentially choosing the Father breaks the power and force of temptation. It is at the point of conflict that what and who we love is revealed. Temptation reveals whether we love ourselves and our own way more than God and His Kingdom. To stop cyclical behavior and begin moving in a more linear direction, we must set our affection on God as our Father. Jesus proves that our love for God can effectively protect and deliver us from all temptations, revealing that it is unnecessary for us to project, travel in circles, turn to the right or to the left, or repeatedly be puffed up with pride or exist in a valley of despair. God’s love shields us and allows us to successfully defeat temptation so that we can find rest and abide on the Agape Road. This is what it means to have engaged and defeated the Seven Giants.

QUESTIONS & THOUGHTS
• In what ways have you experienced temptations in the area of conflict? What was the result?
• Explain how Christ’s yoke is the same as loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
• If you feel God resisting you, consider whether He is trying to keep you on the Agape Road.