“Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to
pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your
guard up.”—1 Peter 5:8, Message
Where I work, there are certain lines you don’t cross and buildings
and spaces you can’t enter without being confronted with a message like this: Hazardous work area—for your safety, hard
hats must be worn at all times. Sometimes, you look around and wonder what
all the fuss is about. Looks OK to me; a little loud, maybe, but nothing to get
up tight about.
Which may explain why OSHA came up with three good reasons why you need to don a
helmet before proceeding a step further into danger. Everything
may seem safe, but there’s always the possibility that
your melon could be at risk. Putting on a hard hat is wise, it’s for your own good, and it’s the
only way to proceed.
Of course,
OSHA didn’t come up with this idea….
Before the
beginning of the beginning, God knew that we would be walking along minding our
own business in a fallen world ("looks OK to me"), when out of nowhere, something tries to get into
our head to cast doubt, fear, accusation, temptation, and/or deception. He knew
we’d need to put on a hard hat that bears the Name above all names — the helmet of salvation — to survive.
And because
we are prone to wander (or worse, prone to be overconfident), God knew we wouldn’t
have to go looking for trouble, trouble would find us and try to knock us for a
setback. He knew we’d need a hard hat that bears the Name above all names while at the same time wielding the Undefeated
Champion’s sword of Truth and Promise.
Best of all, God apparently knew that timing and
location wouldn’t always be convenient to stop everything and have a Bible
study. So, He made hard hats and swords “to go,” and when saturated in the Truth
of praise, their effectiveness would know no limits….
...One night while
driving to the store, and minding my own business, out of nowhere came an “If
God really loved you, then…” moment into my head, even while a praise song was playing in
the background on the radio. Seriously? But instead of nodding in agreement
with the accusation, I surprised myself by speaking in agreement with the song.
I mean, why not? No one else was in the car, so there was no one to witness apparent lunacy. But then, I found my mouth simply declaring the power of the Name above all Names…and singing my own
new song of crazy words, which somehow triggered a recall of scriptures (and I am
horrible at memorizing, so this was miraculous in and of itself). While in the midst of it, little did I realize that this was what it looked like to put on a hard hat of salvation. I did not yell at the
accusation, but I resisted by speaking praise and truth. And before I reached
the store, “it” had left the car and my head. Wow, where did that all come from?!...
In “How to Worship a King,” a go-to book of in recent months, Zach Neese explains:
“We don't
think about this much, but it is really rather obvious: If Satan communicates
with the language of lies, and praise is the opposite of a lie, then praise can
be very useful in taking down our enemy’s communication lines. Cut the lines of
communication, and Satan’s strategies fall to pieces…Our valleys are, in God’s
reality, opportunities for the display of His splendor in our lives. Those
valleys, which were originally meant for evil by Satan, are setups for God’s love and goodness to be displayed.”
Like so
many things in this Walk, it’s easy to think concepts like putting on hard hats
and wielding swords are complex, requiring a seminary degree or a
10-step “how to” program. We
forget that the first ones to try this Walk thing were just regular men and women who
messed up as often as they got it right. And as it was with those guys, these might be
Jesus’ words of encouragement to us:
“Keep it simple. Keep at it. Trust Me. Talk
to Me. Praise My Father and His Words. And before you take one step out the door in the morning, try saying something as simple as this: 'Jesus, be my hard hat.' Then stand back and watch Me move. Even in your car on the way to the store."
“Those who trust in themselves are
fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe." — Proverbs 28:26, NIV
