Active Duty: Avoiding Entanglements in your Walk with God

“Remember that soldiers on active duty don’t get wrapped up in (Voice) or entangled (ESV) in civilian matters because they want to satisfy those who recruited them (Voice).”

-          2 Timothy 2:4, Voice

Active duty.  Military duty that is a full time job.  A commitment to lend one’s strength on behalf of one’s country, one’s home, and one’s people.  Every day.  When it’s boring.  When you’re tired.  No matter when or where you’re needed.  No matter how dangerous.  In every battle.  Training when there is no battle to fight.

And that is how we are supposed to serve Christ – actively, everyday, with undivided attention.  Sure, not every day feels like a battle, and it isn’t.  There are seasons of rest, to train and prepare ourselves, to arm ourselves with the Word, to strengthen our faith.  But there are also days when our strength is tested, when we are called to lend our strength in the battle for other’s souls, in the battle to protect our hearts from temptation and that even greater evil, pride, to confront the darkness and take back the captives.  There will be days when walking with Christ will be difficult, days when we’re tired and want the easier road, days when it seems that aligning ourselves with Christ is the most dangerous decision we could make.  So how do we do it?  How do we walk with God as though we are on active duty?  By staying focused, by not being entangled by the cares of this world. 

Nearly every translation I looked at of this verse used the word “entangled.”  Looking at the definition of this word, I made some interesting discoveries.  Check this out.  The 1828 Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “entangle” as:

“To involve in anything complicated, and from which it is difficult to extricate one’s self … to lose in numerous or complicated involutions … to involve in difficulties; to perplex; to embarrass; to puzzle; to bewilder; to ensnare by captious questions; to catch; to perplex or distract.”

Before I could really derive too much meaning from this, I also needed to look up the word “involutions” (because I didn’t know what that meant), and according to Dictionary.com, this word could mean:

                “A rolling up or folding in upon itself … retrograde development; degeneration.”

So, according to these definitions, there are five categories/ways that we can be ensnared in concerns of the world and kept from fulfilling our divine duties/gifting in Christ:

1.       Unnecessary Obligations – What have we said “yes” to that God didn’t call us to do?  What have we filled our schedule with that keeps us from fully serving the Lord and utilizing our gifts for His glory?  I am not talking about throwing away responsibility, but I think all of us have been in a situation at least once where we committed to something simply because no one else stepped up, because we struggle saying no, etc. – and we didn’t really ask God about if that was something that would glorify Him.  These things, draining us of energy, time, creativity, and tolerance for other people, can become distractions from what God wants us to be focused on.

2.       Losing ourselves in Depression – Look at that definition of “involution.”  A rolling up or folding in upon itself – doesn’t that sound an awful lot like a fetal position?  What have we given up hope?  Where have we lost passion and energy because of sadness and a curling in upon ourselves, focusing only on our own pain?  Again, I am not saying callously to “just get over it.”  I know it doesn’t work that way.  I am saying that we, as children of God and soldiers of His Kingdom, need to recognize the depression that steals from us, seek help from Godly counsel and from the Word and allow time for healing, so the depression does not continue to limit our ability to serve the Lord.

3.       Losing ourselves in immaturity and unwise decisions – Perhaps because I have been studying and doing a lot of genealogy work recently, the phrase “degeneration” means something very different to me than it would have several months ago.  To me, the word “degeneration,” means regressing, means removing a generation of legacy.  How does that happen?  By immaturity and unwise decisions.  Spiritual immaturity robs us of legacy, does not allow us to reach out beyond ourselves, to disciple others in the faith – because we are forever children, who cannot reproduce faith or encourage its growth in another generation.  If anything, spiritual immaturity kills future growth, more likely to do damage to unbelievers who are considering a walk with God than anything.

4.       Captious Questions or Doubts – What questions have we allowed to fill our lives with bitterness and doubts?  Every Christian faces times of questioning, times that can help us examine the foundation of our faith and build it stronger, knowing with more security what we believe.  But there are seasons and attitudes of questioning that can lead to bitterness, doubt, and other spirit-killing things.  Creating an atmosphere for these kinds of questions to fester will not allow you to be a good soldier for Christ or anyone. 

5.       Distractions of all kinds – In America, I feel like this is the easiest to understand.  I mean, we have hundreds of TV channels, work days that stretch into infinity, activities after school every night of the week from the time children, technology that allows you to distance yourself and “be connected” to everything at the swipe of a finger … We do distraction well.  And it hurts our walk with God. 

So why write about this?  It’s heavy, unfriendly, not a “feel good” kind of blog necessarily.  And the answer is simple – because as I studied, I was convicted.  Because there are areas of my life that I have been ensnared.  And now that I see this so clearly, now that God has shown me these areas and these points to watch for – I want to help you escape as well.  There are people who need us to walk freely for Christ, who need the hope we can give them when we are completely in tune with God, strengthened in the Word, and standing on our faith.  We cannot afford to be ensnared and distracted from our serve.  Neither can they. 

It’s time to really go on Active Duty for Christ.  No more reserves.  No more holding back.