Winter has come! Wait, isn’t it summer time? Yes, but if you were a Game of Thrones fan, winter came and was defeated. Maybe, the ending did not meet your expectations, but it still ended. The victory was through one girl with the skill needed to make the final defeating blow. Then she hardly got the credit when the dragon lady went on a rampage. You may have hated the ending of this series, but winter did come and so did the end. Game of Thrones fan or not, the symbolism and creativity of the makers of this series, needs to be applauded. In my opinion, winter represented evil. Winter needed to be defeated similar to the demons that we may possess. How do we defeat winter? Well, perhaps we rely on someone riding on a huge dragon blowing fire to burn our enemies. Perhaps, we rely on one person with a vision to see the future where winter has been defeated and we all live in peace forever and ever. Read on about victory over the demons within and around us.
Winter is like fear. Our demons have a tight grip on us and we may act like a crazy person. You may have heard many times on the news how some person in a rage takes the life of another. We can only ask why? There was a person called “Legion” meaning many demons had entered his body. Legion was a crazy person who had to be restrained for fear of hurting others or himself. No one knew how else to handle this crazy person. In their eyes, he was a lost cause. They just went about their busy lives as usual tending herds of pigs and conducting commerce in the towns. Then one day a person with a vision of the end of the story encountered Legion and his demons. He ordered the demons out of the man’s body and into a herd of pigs who ran off a cliff into the lake and drowned. That ending was not appreciated by those whose commerce was destroyed. The man’s winter came and was defeated. His fear was replaced with faith for a bright future. “He went throughout the city proclaiming what Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8:39b) Like winter which came and went, fear will come but can be defeated by faith. We should not be controlled by human laws that keep us locked up. The law became our custodian, until Christ, so that we might be made righteous by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no long under a custodian. (Galatians 3:24-25) Winter is gone. Faith has come.
The following is a personal reflection about the love of my father to protect me when I did not even know I was in danger. I believe none of us humans are in a position to judge.
I loved my Uncle who was openly practicing homosexual acts. I was a young boy when my Uncle wanted to cut my hair. I did not know anything about homosexuality at the time, but my Father understood the dangers. He loved his older brother but clearly saw possible intentions beyond a normal relationship between an Uncle and Nephew. Did anything happen? NO! Could it have happened? I will never know as my Father protected me well before there could have been a problem. I loved my Uncle all his life though, I never understood or cared for his life choices. I believe we should love people unconditionally and leave the judgement to God. I loved my Father even more for protecting me when I did not know I needed protection. To this day, I thank God that he used my Father to intervene on my behalf. God guided my Father during those early formative years. God also molded me into the person I am today. I will never know what could have happened, but I can only imagine the possibilities. As I hear of events of abused young boys or girls in the past, were their lives impacted? Absolutely, they have been profoundly affected even with some of them going to their graves with the darkness unrevealed. My prayer is that God made them whole again. I also pray for the innocent victims being impacted now when they are too young to understand the difference between affection and lust.
I encourage you all to take a stand for what is right and prepare for the battles to come. Romans 5:2-4 states, “We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” May we endure the problems we face today until we have enough character to produce hope of God’s glory which will overcome all.
As we celebrate our Fathers and Mothers whether still living or passed, let us be strengthened in our prayers to God. May we all be led by the power of the Holy Spirit to resist evil or the temptations evil provides. May we all live Holy lives according to the Truth of Jesus Christ. Faith has indeed come.
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