As a child of God, I am to always keep The Lamp of God in order. In this concept, I hear

• priority
• diligence
• persistence
• remembrance
• maintenance—feeding a fire.

I’ve let the good things God has given me douse the fire and muzzle me with idolatry and comfort before. I’ve let the good aspects of my life drug me into silence and apathy about the ragion in my nation and others, praying, “Jesus, come!”

It’s good to know that the return of Jesus will make all the bad things come untrue.

However, the temptations

• to fear men and the satanic order
• to love created things above The Creator

is part of the goal of the kingdom of darkness—to sideline me and the rest of the body from the war effort of breaking yokes and returning the POWs to our spiritual likeness that God intended us to have from the beginning.

3“Why have we fasted,
 and You have not seen?
 Why have we humbled ourselves,
 and You have not noticed?”
 “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please,
 and you oppress all your workers.
 4You fast with contention and strife
 to strike viciously with your fist.
 You cannot fast as you do today
 and have your voice be heard on high.
 5Is this the fast I have chosen:
 a day for a man to deny himself,
 to bow his head like a reed,
 and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
 Will you call this a fast
 and a day acceptable to the LORD?
 6Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen:
 to break the chains of wickedness,
 to untie the cords of the yoke,
 to set the oppressed free
 and tear off every yoke?
 7Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry,
 to bring the poor and homeless into your home,
 to clothe the naked when you see him,
 and not to turn away
 from your own flesh and blood?
 8Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
 and your healing will come quickly.
 Your righteousness will go before you,
 and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
 9Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
 you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
 If you remove the yoke from your midst,
 the pointing of the finger and malicious talk,
 10and if you give yourself to the hungry
 and satisfy the afflicted soul,
 then your light will go forth in the darkness,
 and your night will be like noonday.
 11The LORD will always guide you;
 He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land
 and strengthen your frame.
 You will be like a well-watered garden,
 like a spring whose waters never fail.
 12Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins;
 you will restore the age-old foundations;
 you will be called Repairer of the Breach,
 Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.

(Isaiah 58, Berean Study Bible). Another ploy of satan is to gradually transform God in the yes of humankind, whether dhild or rebel, by forcing teh perfect truth of God’s identity into a deceptive mold. That godless form would do any number of destructive things

• erase aspects of His true nature
• overemphasize aspects of His perfect Word or identity (in order to diminish other characteristics)
• shape a God in our minds and rhetoric that reflects human ideologies and wisdom, rather than His actual teaching.

In the precise measuring set forth in Chapter Twenty-four of Leviticus for baked cakes, I hear God saying to never limit God according to my own traumas, preferences, or sociopolitical agendas. God doesn’t fit into my limited thinking and fallen imaginings; by grace through faith, He is teaching me to expand my mind. God the Holy Spirit is lifting my life out of the pit of my own strength, intellect, habits, and desires. Amen.