The Lord recently spoke an unusual word to me. The word was “primal.” One definition of the word primal is the actions of a knuckle-dragging and primitive-thinking Neanderthal kind of person who has not developed spiritually or emotionally. The other definition of the word has to do with what is essential and fundamental to our survival, both physically and spiritually. The latter definition was the definition the Lord was calling to my attention. That kind of primal preparedness is something we should carry quietly and privately. It’s not something we display for all to see.
As believers, we know that until the Lord returns and calls us away from the sorrows of this world, we are to protect and serve those we love – those who live within our immediate circle of concern. That protection and service must be present or those under our care will feel vulnerable and unprotected.
The opposite of our spiritual responsibility is to abandon those we love. We do this by not providing them with protection and provision thinking we are being more spiritual than someone who lives this life prepared.
Some believers are asking us to live in a spiritual ether space detached from the harsh realities of life where the practical measures of protection and provision are abandoned as an act of spiritual superiority. That naïve choice works until real danger comes and those we love are swept away by its evil. God will hold us accountable for such abandonment.
Do not accept any naïve and disconnected interpretation of the realities of life that removes us from personal responsibility and accountability. That naivety and its disconnection from reality will open the door to having our marriages, homes, and those we love, become easy prey to trauma.
Until the Lord arrives and calls us home, we are the ones responsible for what comes into our personal lives, our homes, and our relationships. To protect the people within our intimate circle of responsibility is right and good and should be honored, not dismissed and demeaned. That choice will appear too primal to those who do not yet know or have ever experienced real trauma and suffering while they continue to live within a bubble of their foolish detachment from reality.
In the coming days. when hellish expressions of evil continue to rise and attempt to assault the ones we love, the protected ones will thank the Lord for the protection and provision they received when real trauma and lack appeared. That kind of primal love, a love that is essential and fundamental to our survival, will be seen as an expression of God’s protective and serving heart as opposed to someone who has adopted an ill-informed and unprepared version of their faith that leaves their loved ones vulnerable and unprotected.
“A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences” (Proverbs 22:3).
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
Featured Image by Jan Meyes from Pixabay
