What Banner are You Living Under?

You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow. – Psalm 60:4

As I have studied American wars with my boys this year, I have come to realize how important flags are in a battle.  For example, the battlefields of the Civil War were chaotic places filled with smoke, noise and confusion.  A flag from a soldier’s regiment or state provided a valuable visual landmark.  It served as a rallying point and helped the soldiers keep close to each other.  A flag provided a reminder of what they were fighting for and gave the soldiers incentive to press on.
These days it seems that there are many different flags being raised that people rally under.  Social causes top the list.  Recently the media was filled with women lifting up signs and banners that they proudly marched down the streets of our nation.  They gave themselves to these causes and have conformed their lives around them.

Today, my question for you is: what flag are you living under?  Each of us has a banner that we raise and dedicate ourselves to.  Call it your reason for living or the passion for your existence.  What is yours?  Most likely you are not wielding a physical sign above your head, but you have something that you are spending yourself on. 

Is it the “all-sacred” home and family?  Success?  Physical fitness or beauty?  Comfort?  Maybe it’s a “worthy” cause that trips your trigger: the environment, animals, sanctity of life, social tolerance or medical research.  For many it is a combination of these elements of life.  We fashion our own banner of maybe family, acceptance, being green and healthy living.  When we think we have it right we lift it up in social media, in what we give money to, in what we talk about and how we pick our friends.

What does your banner look like, ladies?  Pause and consider that question.  Here’s another - what are we doing designing our own banners to define our life?  Have we forgotten… there are only two options available!  There are only two possible flags to live under: the flag of Jesus Christ or the flag of the world.  We need to stop trying to make our own.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 12:30a, “Whoever is not with me is against me.”  We are either gathered with Jesus or gathered against Jesus.  The banner above your head either reads, “With Jesus” or “Against Jesus”.  Check it closely!  There are no flags for “Undecided”, “Socially Conscious”, “Nice People”, “Pro-Choice”, or “Baptists”.  

The women who took to the streets in protest a few weeks ago evidenced this fact.  They were protesting for women’s rights and equality but many of the signs they raised displayed their hatred for Jesus Christ.  How strange that those blaming Jesus for their problems are the ones who prove him right over and over again.

Psalm 60:4 above tells us that God himself has set up a banner for those who fear him.  It is singular, there is only one banner, the banner of Christ. 

The soldiers in the American wars would die for their flag.  Are you so bold in your dedication?  Are you willing to hang the flag of, “With Jesus” on your life?  To display it in everything you do and say?  Are you devoted to agreeing with all that is in his Word?  If not, you are most likely on the other side under the flag of the world.  You okay with having “Against Jesus” above your head?  Think about that.

Ladies, if you have been waving any flag other than the flag of Christ in your life it is time to take it down and burn it.  Are we pro-life, pro-family and anti-violence?  You bet, but it is because we are pro-Jesus first and foremost.  There is no reason to battle for right and wrong outside of the One who defines right and wrong.  We support causes that are biblical but we conform our lives around Jesus Christ and not the cause.
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We need to be with Christ and everything he says in his Word.  If we carry any banner in our life to show the world what we live and die for, let it be a white one washed clean with the blood of our Savior and let it simply say, “With Jesus”.