There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. – 1 John 4:18a (ESV)
God is love.
God is perfect.
God’s love is therefore perfect – complete, lacking nothing. He treats we, His children, with amazing benevolence and deep affection.
What is there to possibly fear when the Lord is near? And, trust me, He is always here. With us.
With you.
Ponder that. Rest in Him. Be joyful and strong in the Lord.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock. – Isaiah 26:3-4 (ESV)
Ahhhh… the idea of having a heart at perfect peace. Unruffled. Unflappable. Unmoved by the troubles of this world.
Sounds nice, huh?
I wish I could say I never worry, never have anxious moments… But I do. I’m human.
I’ve spent a lot of my life seeking peace until I finally got it through my thick, balding head that peace is neither a state of mind nor the absence of conflict in our lives. When we seek to find peace through controlling our circumstances, we only end up with more inner turmoil and anxiety.
Notice what Isaiah tells us. Peace comes when we put our focus on God. Not ourselves. Not our troubles or worries. Just on Him. Trusting Him fully no matter what. Understanding that peace comes through trust in theLord, Who is infinitely greater than any giant we may face.
To the degree we stay focused on the Lord, putting our faith and hopes on Him alone, we will find perfect, full, complete peace. Rest for our weary souls. Refreshment for our tired spirits. Want more peace? Trust God more. In fact, anxiety and worry are often pretty good barometers of our walk with God.
This week, if you find yourself struggling, worried, anxious… do this. Give that worry to the Lord. Pray. Talk to Him. No need for fancy words. Just ask Him, “Father, help me!” Pour out your heart. Then wait on the Lord.
Put your hope in God.
Trust in Him.
Fearlessly.
Stay focused on the Lord, through prayer and His Word.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication t with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, v which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:4-7 (ESV)
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” – Luke 5:27-32 (ESV)
I have never been one to appreciate change merely for the sake of change. When change is thrust upon me, I tend to bristle a bit.
Maybe it’s the whole “old dog, new tricks” thing.
Maybe I just get comfy in my rut.
Maybe it’s like the scene in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption”, where the old man is paroled after spending most of his lifeincarcerated. He doesn’t want to leave. Shawshank is his home, all he knows. He’s comfortable in his prison.
Comfortable in his prison. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? To think this sinful world has us so institutionalized that we don’t care to leave it’s cold embrace.
Yet, whenever we encounter Christ, this is exactly what He calls us to do. He pulls us from our cell and radically changes us.
Sometimes we recognize with gratitude what the Lord has done for us.
Sometimes we go kicking and screaming, clinging desperately to the cell bars.
But, the good news is that the of the Lord, once recognized, is irresistible. We begin to see that we cannot possibly go one mile, one minute, one motion, without the constant presence of the Lord.
And, if we could, we wouldn’t want to.
Jesus offers us a beautiful change so radical that our very identity is altered.
Simon the fisherman is now Peter the rock.
Saul the Pharisee Christian hunter is now Paul the apostle of Christ.
Levi, the scoundrel tax collector – a profession so lurid and low in Jesus’ day that it ranked near prostitution in the list of jobs that would make mom and dad proud – became the apostle Matthew. Jesus transformed him from one who took advantage of the people to a gift for us all, used to our profit by God.
You see, that is how God works. He woks through us, to the betterment of others and, in turn, ourselves. He turns our shipwrecks into beautiful memorials. He builds us to build others. He changes all things to our good.
But it isn’t really about us being good, is it? If that we the case, the law would have been sufficient for our salvation. One can be evil and appear good by simply connecting some of the dots of the law in public. Likewise, no one has ever been so good that they kept perfectly every nuance of the law. (Save Jesus, that is. But Christ is a bit of a special case, don’t you think?)
We need change. And we are incapable of producing that change ourselves. We have to, in faith, let the Holy Spirit move in and take over. We have to relinquish control of our lives to the Lord.
Even when the change hurts.
Even when His direction is illogical to us.
Even when we want what we should not partake of.
Even when we don’t understand.
When I was a kid, We used to sing a hymn in church about the wonder working power of the blood of the Lamb. Back then it was a bong old hymn, sung loudly and out of tune by a small group of senior citizens in our tiny rural church. It is only now, forty years after, that I am beginning to get some understanding of what that means.
Sometimes I’ve been blinded by the Pharisees who claimed I had no business hanging out with Jesus.
More often it is my own inner-Pharisee condemning me, reminding me of my sins and telling me I’m not worthy of Christ, of love, of any help or accomplishment.
Lies. All lies.
But the lies persist as long as I resist the change by the power of Jesus.
In Him, I am loved.
In Him, I am not weird.
In Hm, I am not a loser.
In Him, I am redeemed, a child of great worth. Not because of who I am, but who He is within me.
In Him, very simply, I am.
And so are you.
The doors of your cell are wide open. Walk out. Go find your place at the Lord’s table and enjoy the feast. Seek the Lord first. Love. Go. Do.
Believe.
Live in peace.
Rest in love.
Change.
The McDonald’s Locomocoburger. I gotta go to Tokyo and try one of these.
I hate to admit this. I mean, I really hate to admit this. I almost feel like a sinner in the confessional booth on this one. But… it’s time to come clean.
Fess up.
Let the world know.
After all, in the words of fellow sinner Martin Luther, “Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly.”
OK. Here goes…
(Closes eyes and draws in deep breath.)
I like McDonald’s.
There. I said it. It’s out in the open.
It’s not that I grew up on their food. I can only remember eating at a McDonald’s once as a small child. And I didn’t like the finely chopped onions on my burger.
I was a Burger Chef kid. In the small town I grew up in, the choices for fast food fare were few and far between. KFC. Long John Silver’s. Burger Chef.
And Jeff, the big man’s sidekick.
Burger Chef had the Works Bar. You ordered your burger and fixed it up however you liked. I’d get a cheeseburger and put tartar sauce on it. (Yes, this is the same kid who had an issue with the teensy-tiny onions on a McDonald’s burger.)
I was very sad to see Hardee’s eat up Burger Chef in the ’80s. But that’s another story.
When we were in China, we ate at a McDonald’s. Their menu isn’t quite the same as McDonald’s in the U.S. There were plenty of exclusively Chinese McDonald’s items to be had. However, my jones for some American food far outweighed my adventurous spirit at that point in our trip.
I ordered a Big Mac (without vegetables – no sense taking chances of getting sick on raw lettuce). We ate a lot of “western” food while we were in China. That Big Mac only thing I ate in China that tasted just like it tastes here at home.
I’ve been looking at some international McDonald’s websites. First I pulled up McDonald’s India, which has a lot of creatively different options (which makes perfect sense when you’re a burger restaurant in a non-beef eating society).
Then I checked out McDonald’s Japan. The website was in Japanese (of course), so I had to use Microsoft Translator to read it in English. As I looked at their menu I saw the “Locomocoburger”. It is described as:
たまごと2枚のビーフパティを粉チーズトッピングのバンズでサンド。
When I translated the page, it gave me this:
“Two beef patties with egg powder cheese topping buns at sandbox.”
This description is a bit off the mark. I looked at a photo of the Locomocoburger and saw no traces of powder. No sandbox. It’s two hamburger patties, a slice of cheese, a McMuffin-style egg, lettuce and some Japanese sauce on a bun.
It actually looks quite good. If I’m ever at a McDonald’s in Japan, I’ll give it a try.
McDonald’s is great at adapting itself to local cultures. This started me thinking about how we approach Scripture, and just how amazing the Bible truly is.
Consider these facts:
All of these factors and still – astoundingly – the books of the Bible work as a whole, one cohesive narrative, sound and without error of message.
This is “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, ESV). “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV).
The Bible isn’t just a book. It is God’s Word to His people. It adapts to different cultures and stands up to multiple translations (over 500 languages thus far) and paraphrases. While differences in interpretation abound, and theological approaches reveal different facets of the message, this doesn’t create a problem with the Bible itself. Indeed, it is like viewing a precious stone and the different characteristics we see when we turn it.
The thing is, you have to take God at His Word, and take God’s Word for what it is. Don’t just accept someone’s evaluation of what the Bible says as gospel. Read it! Eating a burger with powdered egg cheese (whatever that is) served in a sandbox doesn’t sound very appealing. But, when we you realize the description is waaaay off and you see the real thing…
God meets each of us where we are. We may be in captivity or wandering the desert. We may be in battle or just traveling along the road. We may be in the midst of dark times, on the mountaintop or deep in the valley of death. Wherever we are, wherever we go, the Lord goes with us. And His Word is just as relevant, no matter what, no matter where.
Be comforted by that today. Be strengthened by knowing that the Bible is living, active, vital, relevant, true, God-breathed Word of our Lord. Trust in the Lord. Rest in His promises. Know that what His Word says is true, and right, and applicable to you and your life and your situation. And God will speak to you through His Word (or however He chooses) wherever you are.
Even at the sandbox.
I have a theory. Actually I have a lot of theories, but since this is a piece about focusing on the right things and not a JFK conspiracy discussion board (and, yes, Oswald acted alone), I think we should focus on only one theory.
My theory is simply this: we are fascinated by shiny objects.
We have a laser pointer. My son likes to shine the little red light on the floor and move it around, much to the amusement of our cats who run and leap and dance in their vain attempts to catch the wiggling red point of light.
The problem is that the light is an illusion of sorts. Yes, it is real. It is shiny. But it is immaterial. The cats chase it, trying hard to clutch onto it. But to no avail. Still, they are focused – lasered in, if you will – on that light. You could surround them with bowls filled with catnip, tuna and any other number of stinky feline favorites, and they wouldn’t care. Not until that light goes away.
I believe we humans have a tendency to be fascinated by shiny objects as well. For example, I need to change my web browser home page. It’s still on the factory setting of a website that opens up with the news and weather for the day ahead. Today, as I was jumping online to write this piece, the first thing I saw was presidential candidate Bernie Sanders being “surrounded” by three Secret Service men because someone tried to rush the stage at a campaign event.
I had to read this story. I had to know how Bernie was doing.
Bernie’s fine, by the way. And I lost three minutes of my life I will never get back.
It isn’t that I was so worried about Mr. Sanders. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m glad he’s ok. But, did I need to know this info? How does this positively impact my day? How does this help me to positively impact the lives of others around me today?
It doesn’t.
More seriously, neither does worry.
Or doubt.
Or anxiety.
Or guilt.
These are “shiny objects”. They grip our attention and pull our focus away from the reality of God working in our lives. When we entertain these worries and fears, we miss out on His peace and joy and confidence.
No amount of handwringing over the past, present or future is productive, or healthy.
Instead of focusing on the what ifs and troubles that may or may not happen, focus on God. Remember that He is with you always, no matter how rocky the road appears.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. – Philippians 4:8 (ESV)
Take your eyes off the shiny object, and lift your eyes and heart and mind upward to God. It is in Him and His Word that we find the Truth about our lives and situations, about Who He is, and who we are.
9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. – 2 Chronicles 16:9 (ESV)
Surrender is:
a. the goal for your enemy at the end of a conflict
b. the name of the song that helped catapult the band Cheap Trick to superstardom
c. how we find strength in God
OK… the answer is all of the above. But, for what we’re talking about today, let’s focus on answer c.
Surrender isn’t easy. It means laying ourselves aside – our goals, our plans, our egos, our anxieties – and submitting fully to God and His will.
Simple? Yes. Easy? Well… that’s something completely different, isn’t it? But… surrender is entirely necessary if we are going to seek His help, guidance and peace.
We all face challenges that appear insurmountable. Stress, work, home, family, relationships, etc… A lot of us like to think we have it all under control. We rely on our own strength until, one day…
SPLAT!
Life hits the proverbial fan. Things go south. Circumstances change for the worse. And we discover just how little control we have in life. We find how vulnerable we really are. We see that none of us truly possesses the capability to handle life on our own.
The good news: we don’t have to. We need to look to the Lord. We need to seek God continually. We need to ask Him for His strength. As a dear friend of mine put it, “Sometimes you need to go to Him hourly. Sometimes the pain is so great that you need to ask Him, ‘Lord, please get me through this hour.”
Know this: God is with you. His Holy Spirit is inside you. He is your strength. He is your redeemer. He is your salvation. He is your help in time of need. Perfect love casts out all fear, and God is perfect love.
For those who believe in God through His Son Jesus Christ, there is never a need for fear and anxiety. We are not weak because He is strong! He is with each of His children – always. He has promised to never leave us, never abandon us, never forget us.
There is nothing wrong with going to God in tears, with fears and worries and doubts. Take them to Him. Cast them upon Him. Ask for His strength. Seek Him in prayer and His Word.
Surrender all to the Lord.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. – James 4:7 (ESV)
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” – John 15:1-7 (ESV)
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. – 1 Peter 5:6-10 (ESV)
“And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” – Psalm 50:15 (ESV)
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? – Matthew 6:27 (KJV)
One of my favorite pastimes is genealogy. I love tracing back my roots, reading about my ancestors and the collective DNA over the centuries that have culminated in making my family and me.
One of my blood lines leads back to the Medici’s, the Florentine powerbroker family who gave the world three popes, two French queens and several dukes, duchesses, ya da ya da… as well as bankrolling Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. (Of course, my direct lineage traces back to one of the lesser knowns of the Medici dynasty: Spanky diMedici, first night manager of a Taco Bell just off the A11 expressway outside Quaratta. You can still see his name engraved on a plaque that hangs just outside the restaurant’s men’s room: Spanky diMedici, Employee of the Month, October 1497.)
Another line leads back to William “Braveheart” Wallace. Quite ironic, given the fact that I have a propensity for worry.
And I come from a long line of worriers. Indeed, I don’t think I could paint my face blue enough for anyone to look at me and say, “Hey! You must be a descendent of William “Braveheart” Wallace!” (I doubt I could even be mistaken for a member of the Blue Man Group.)
Worry is no fun, to say the least. It sucks the life right of us. For me, a lot of my worry is rooted in uncertainty. Control freaks tend to be worriers (and vice versa). And when we don’t know the outcome of a certain situation, we try to control it. And when we discover we truly have no control, we worry.
Worry is foolish. God is in control of everything. He didn’t just create the universe, set the world a-spin and walk away with a “Best of luck!” He is our sustainer as well. He cares for His creation.
He cares for His children.
In Matthew 6, Jesus makes it explicitly clear that the Lord cares for us and tends to us.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. – Matthew 6:25-34 (ESV)
I love verse 27. While the ESV makes it clear that worry won’t add one second to your life (in fact, just the opposite), it’s the King James rendering – that worry can’t add one cubit to your stature – that really got my attention.
You see, life is filled with circumstances and events and stuff that we have no control over. Some of it is good. Some bad. But even the bad can be made good by God.
We are not called to be in control. We are called to be faithful. We are called to trust in the Lord. We are instructed to cast our cares on Him and walk by faith, not by sight. When we face life, and all its difficulties and adversities and troubles, we have two options: sit and worry, or trust God with the outcome.
Trust God to see us through the storm.
Just trust God no matter how things appear.
When we trust God through hardships and trials, we grow. God grows our faith, makes us stronger. He shows us that He has things well in hand, despite appearances to the contrary. It is in faithfully facing adversity that we grow. When we choose to worry, our growth is stunted.
And, yes, worry is a choice. Perhaps not entirely a conscious one, but it is a choice.
The next time you catch yourself toiling over some situation or problem, don’t let worry overcome your thoughts. Stop. Pray. Remember that God is in control. You don’t need to worry. If you can do something positive about the situation, do it and don’t worry. If it is entirely out of your hands, cast it on the Lord and don’t worry.
Stay in His Word daily. Pray without ceasing. Love others with your whole heart, and know that you are loved.
Now… where did I put that be spray paint?
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…cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. – 1 Peter 5:7 (ESV)
Cast: To aim and throw at your target, with great purpose. Like an angler casting at the perfect spot where the bass bite.
All: All. Every. Each and every. Regardless of cause. Regardless of reason. Regardless of anything. No matter what. No. Matter. What. The sum. The whole. The entirety. All inclusive.
All. All.
All.
Your anxieties: Your worries. Your cares. Your fears. Your doubts. Whatever it is that is distracting you.
Upon Him: On God. Your Father. Full of grace and mercy. Able to handle any situation. Ready to forgive every sin. With His arms open wide to receive you, His child. Love Himself.
Because He cares for you: He is concerned for you. He loves you. And it is personal. He loves all of His children, individually and as a whole. He is with you always. There is nothing beyond His grasp. He loves you.
God.
Loves.
You.
Now… put it all together. And walk boldly, and confidently, with great thanksgiving and joy, casting every anxiety, worry, fear and doubt on the Lord, because He cares for you.
The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. – Proverbs 29:25 (ESV)
My brother and I were blessed to be raised in the country, in a little brick house with a huge yard, surrounded by woods and our grandpa’s cow pasture. We had a red wagon and, on hot summer days, would go out in the backyard and catch toads.
“Why?” you ask. Because we were boys. And boys do things like catch toads.
And put them in a wagon.
A red, metal wagon.
In the summer.
In the sun.
I have never actually placed a frog in a pot of cold water and gradually turned up the heat until said amphibian cooked through without jumping from the boiling cauldron. However, I can tell you a bunch of toads accidentally left in a red wagon in the hot, blazing sun produces the same outcome, only via a different cooking method.
And it was an accident. We didn’t intend to harm these toads, let alone sauté them. Like I said, we were boys. Our attention span was evidently shorter than the time it takes to fry toads in a red wagon.
I share this story not to ruin anyone’s appetite but to illustrate a point. When we live to please people instead of God, we end up like a toad in a little red wagon.
We find ourselves compromising what we know to be true to gain favor with others. We base our decisions on how others might feel. This is not to say we should ignore other’s feelings – far from it. Rather, we cannot let the opinions of others lead our lives. Only God should do that.
Proverbs calls the fear of man a snare – a wire loop trap designed to catch small animals by tightening around them when they step in it. If it tightens around the throat (or too tightly around the torso), it can kill its victim. In fact, snares are so dangerous that they are heavily regulated in much of the U.S., and banned outright throughout Europe.
Fearing man over God is a dangerous place to be. That fear keeps us from moving forward in life, from growing as the Lord would have us grow, doing boldly what He wants us to do boldly. Our decisions need to be based on God and His Word and seeking Him first and foremost, above all else.
In its extreme form, people pleasing leads to being a mindless “yes man”, a sycophant. There is a name for people like this: toadies.
Simply pleasing people in order to gain their approval or favor is a mistake. You just end up sweating in a little red wagon, slowly frying, unable – even unwilling – to jump out to the safety of the cool grass below.
Trust me, I know. I am a reformed toadie. It has taken a lot of years but I see that living to seek the approval of other people is a dead end. A trap.
A snare.
For me, being a toadie took the form of wanting everybody around me to like me, to accept me, to love me. The thought of disappointing someone else was agonizing. It was all rooted in a poor sense of self, in considering myself to be beneath everyone I looked up to.
I could hear the sizzle. I could smell the burn. I just didn’t realize I was smelling myself in a hot wagon.
Then, one day, it finally dawned on me. Where did all this attempted people pleasing get me? Absolutely nowhere. Love cannot be earned. It is given freely. And not everyone is going to love you.
But God will. And does. God loves me – and you – despite our foibles or mistakes. He always has. He always will.
5 Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. 6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? 7 The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. 8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. – Psalms 118:5-8 (ESV)
So… ask yourself this: are you more afraid of what someone else thinks or says about what you do, say or believe than you are of what God thinks? Why are you doing what you do? Who do you live to please? Is it worse to disappoint a person or the Lord? Who is the ultimate authority in your life? And why does it matter what other people think? Whose expectations are you trying to meet?
Generally speaking, you will never please another person who expects you to cow-tow to them. You cannot fulfill another human beings whims so completely that they – or you – will ever find any freedom. The toadie is a slave to people pleasing. And the person expecting such behavior from others is a slave to ego.
Be free in Christ. Seek God and His will first. Is it good to seek wise counsel from others? Of course. Is it good to seek their approval? No.
Do not fear the opinions of others. Do not live to seek the approval of others. Live a life that is pleasing to the Lord and don’t let the opinions of others be a noose. Snare that inner toadie. Live in Christ! Be salt and light.
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. – Galatians 1:10 (ESV)
Here it is, blunt and simple.
I hate anxiety.
I hate depression.
I hate worry and doubt and the low feeling of having no worth.
There are a lot of causes for all these maladies. Sometimes the ole brain just doesn’t pump out the serotonin as it ought (and shame on every Christian who ever immediately jumped to the conclusion that your feelings are merely the result of some sin you have committed without stopping to consider physiological and psychological factors).
The truth is, no matter the root of your anxiety or depression, God forgives your sin. You just have to confess your sin.
But, here’s the problem… So often it isn’t others who hold us back, who remind us of our pasts, who trigger fear or anxiety or doubt within us.
As Walt Kelly’s cartoon character Pogo once famously said, “We have seen the enemy, and it is us.”
Ok… I’m a little out of context here. Kelly was commenting on the environment. And the Bible tells us we war not against flesh and blood for ours is a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:12).
All the same, how often are we our own worst enemy? We allow ourselves to entertain the thoughts that worry us instead of embracing the Truth of God’s Word. We weigh the what if scenarios as if they carry any real mass. We fear so much that we face when all we can see is the past, and the here and now, not the future. And, even what we can see we perceive incompletely, inaccurately, out of focus.
I wrote the other day about the fence of legalism, a barrier that keeps us trapped in unforgiveness, unable to truly live and embrace the freedom that Christ died to give us. But, the more I think about it, how much time do we spend sitting on that fence?
And I’m not referring to how we treat others. We can forgive and love in the name of Jesus. But we can’t accept that same forgiveness or ourselves. We have difficulty embracing God’s love on our own lives.
If that’s you, straddling that legalistic fence, constantly convicting yourself of the things the Lord has forgiven you, it’s time.
Today.
Now.
Right now.
Jump down from that fence.
Come down onto the side of grace.
Accept once and for all that you are forgiven, you are loved, you are worthy of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Not because of anything you have done, but because God truly, honestly, really and fully loves you. You are His child.
Today is the day to accept that fact. Today, quit listening to what / who the world says you are. Stop listening to the self condemning voice telling you your worth is diminished.
God Himself came down here and died for you. Yes, you. It is that personal. It is that real.
And Jesus was no fence rider. He spoke in absolutes.
And He spoke against legalism.
And legalism is bad whether it comes from others, or from ourselves.
Today, take God at His Word. Today, get off the fence and bask in the joyous glory of freedom in Christ.
Go.
Do.
Believe.
Embrace.
Love.
The Bouville Diarist and Sharpening Service 