"What are you looking for?"
The Holy Spirit asked me as I read a popular martial arts magazine on my smartphone. I thought for a moment, and finally confessed that I was looking for the perfect technique that would make me invincible. In other words, I was using the martial arts as a path to try to become "god." As soon as I admitted this, the Holy Spirit (Who is the real God) confirmed in my gut what I knew all along: such a technique does not exist. I will never be invincible and I will never be "god."
Jesus Christ will give me victory when it comes to protecting Christ-centered, one-man, one-woman marriages. However, the victory will be His, not mine. I cannot win this battle on my own power, and no technique, whether physical, emotional, psychological, financial, or supernatural will work unless my Heaven Father has already determined the outcome in my favor. This was a tough pill to swallow (it's actually, metaphorically speaking, still stick in my throat as I type), but necessary. For in order to ensure that people are saved from burning in the Lake of Fire forever, I must preach the gospel in Christ's power, not my own. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.*
*Romans 6:23 (ESV)
