Thu 8.19 POWERLESS?

Thu 8.19 POWERLESS? Rm 5:3...We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. I had a dream about spiritual warfare this morning. My subconscious peopled the dream with a mercenary 2010 type Dictator but he was Satan. He used FEAR to force everyone, even me, to commit atrocities JUST TO KEEP OUR LIVES. He had us all locked down and any NONCONFORMITY TO HIS WILL was punished by vicious attack. Romans 5 is so rich. But a major point there is that we have PEACE with God but not with His enemy. And His enemy is sometimes the tool used to prod us thru the wilderness that often lasts longer than expected. I am still digesting a teaching that says it only took 12 days to get from Egypt to the PROMISED land but the people who left Egypty FREE BY GOD's decree were not ready to live there until He worked on them. Unfortunately their stubbornness stretched the training out to 40 yrs. We often criticize the former slaves for longer for Egyptian comforts out in the harsh desert of "freedom." Will we change and be molded any more quickly under God's hand. Or do we out out of fear huddle trembling under the hand of the enemy too afraid or too comfortable to CHANGE, be set apart, made holy by the God who just DECLARES us righteous because He wants to? What would America look like if most of us chose the easier path and lost touch with God? It would look like France. Hard to find any believers. And it would feel like the Egypt again. Slaves to a master who HAS NO GOOD IN STORE AND ONLY HATE FOR HIS SLAVES. Chris August sings about some of that landscape in "Starry Night"