Life Coaching: Life Lesson From Jonah

Mark 3:27 "Let me illustrate this further. Who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man and plunder his goods? Only someone even stronger—someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house. "

I wrote this two years ago, posted it on Facebook, and promptly forgot about it. Today, it was in my FB memories, and I decided to post it here. I hope it makes you think, like it did me…

In church this morning, I kept thinking about this scripture...There is a reason for the word "strong" in the word stronghold. If it didn't have power, it would be called a weak hold. A friend of mine pointed that out to me years ago and I've always remembered that. Rewind several thousand years to Jonah. Jonah slept like a brick in the boat while a massive storm raged. My point? When deception takes hold of our lives, we sleep like babies. When a strong man takes over our house and invades our life, we are lulled into a false sense of peace and security because we are deceived. We are working for the man every night and day (no offense, CCR, and note the lower case "m"). We allow strongholds of every type into our lives and once they live there, we get so used to them, we become comfortable with bondage. Jonah was perfectly at peace with the idea of running from God. He was cutting zzz's and thinking he was one smart cookie. Little did he know that he'd soon be fish food. He didn't come to his senses until three days later. He was covered in vomit...gross, but free. He had his focus back. Sometimes we have to wade through all manner of foul and disgusting things in order to even know we have a strong man in our lives. The strong man may be movin' up, but he ain't movin' out. (This must be the day for old rock 'n' roll) He likes it there. He's found a home. He's comfortable. He has a dog. And a cat. And cable TV. Why should he move? He lives in our lives relatively rent free. Why should he move? And once he's there, boy does he have an entitlement mentality! He doesn't want to be evicted. He will delay it as long as he can. Much like Jonah running from the Lord, sleeping in that boat, oblivious to the whale of a tale that was getting ready to swallow him whole. Three days in the belly of a whale chilled him right out. But, you see, I have a feeling the bondage wasn't totally the physical location of Jonah. The true bondage was the strong man of rebellion against the One who made him. It took three of the most miserable, putrid, foul days imaginable to get his attention...three days to drive the rebellion out of his heart so he was at last free to do God's will. I do not want to be a Jonah.

I have a feeling that most strong man issues have a seed in rebellion. A seed that was planted long before Jonah in Eden. It is no coincidence when the enemy handed that fruit to Eve that it was something that had a seed. A seed, when planted, sprouted a rebellious fruit and ultimately resulted in the downfall of mankind. And we have been trying to overcome it ever since.

What is your strong man? We all have one. We all have at least one area of our lives we struggle to turn over to God. It's a little piece of ourselves we want to keep and hold and pet. And if we leave it undisturbed, we think we have peace. Because when we disturb that strong man, pain comes. And nobody wants that. We are pleasure-seeking creatures. I know I am. But it is only through pain that we change and confirm ourselves into the image of the immutable God.

There is only one way to defeat the strong man...to keep from becoming Jonah. There is only one strong covenant--Jesus Christ. As the verse above states, "only someone even stronger could tie him up and plunder his house." Not only does Jesus defeat the strong man, but He plunders his house! The word "plunder" means to "take goods by force, particularly during war." I want my stuff back, don't you? I'm tired of handing hard-earned victories over to the enemy's camp. I want my stolen identity ransacked, taken by force, dragged before the throne room of the Most High God, and exposed for the lie that it is. We are not the strong man. We are not the deception. We are not false peace. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. How dare the enemy even think he could sneak into our barracks and steal our provisions!?!