Many times, we become distracted by the physical circumstances. We forget that Gods ways are higher than our ways, as high as the heavens are above the Earth.  We get lured into the trap of believing that some battles are spiritual, and some battles are physical. The truth is all battles are spiritual, Some within us, some outside of us. The enemy creates a circumstance outside of us in the hope that we will step into the trap of internalizing it.

     I was writing something called ; The Armor Game. When I got to the breastplate of righteousness the Holy Spirit let me know that there is a breastplate of self-righteousness, we keep close at hand. We are either wearing one or the other and we change them continuously throughout the day.

    On the way to my first job, I stopped for a light and waited for the left turn arrow. The light changed but someone, probably on their phone way up in the line left about a 20-car gap. No one even beeped their horn I was forced to beep him from 10 cars back. This guy makes it through the light leaving everyone behind him waiting for the next light. If that happened in New Jersey, the people that caught the light would have pool their funds and put a contract out on him.

      In hindsight I got a biblical object lesson. “If you look for good you find it, if you look for evil you find it.” Going from job to job the only thing that caught my attention was all the people on their phones. Very frustrating!

     Suddenly! The unthinkable happened, I was waiting for a light to change and I got bumped. Instead of acknowledging God in all my ways. I jumped out of the car in full blown road rage.  Ran back screaming at the guy. “Are you on your phone. The guy was half my age and it looked like he had a duck his head to get in his car. If he got out of his car roadkill would have had a new meaning. I scared him. He apologized and said he was changing the radio station and was not on his phone. I came to my senses, not wanting to push it further. I told him there was no damage and got back in my truck thinking, your breastplate of self-righteousness was a little too close at hand. I haven’t had road rage like that since I was an outlaw biker well over 50 years ago.

      The situation could have easily escalated, God protected me. Yes, he was afraid but not of me, no one wants to be tangled up with legal hassles. If I had the breastplate of righteousness on and been spirit led. I would have brought peace to the situation even used it as a witnessing tool, and said something like: There is no damage, you bumped into me because God wanted you to know that he loves you and He has some things he wants to discuss with you when you open your Bible app. God is the answer to what you are going through. Have a nice day. And let the Holy Spirit do the rest. Truth in Love.

     I got another biblical object lesson in taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. I realized that the time to take the phone thought captive was waiting for the arrow at the first incident. Instead, of thinking, maybe God is delaying me for a reason, which my past experiences has shown me many times.  Instead, I let my flesh take the phone thought and the day with it, right down a rabbit hole into the trap of anger and discontent. I usually ask God to help me to dwell in those situations and I’m reminded there is no need to hurry. We have all been beeped for taking too long at a light. Maybe God slowed me down for that very incident, so He could reach out to this guy through me.  My road rage reaction blew a witnessing opportunity; I could have planted a great seed. 

    “The lesson.” Don’t react out of autopilot. Check the breastplate. Am I stepping into this situation with the shoes of the gospel of peace or reacting with the boot heels of self-righteous contention