133 Meaningless Matters!

Meaning: “conveying a significance that is not directly expressed . . .”

“Emerson, I cannot imagine why you should concern yourself about such a trivial and meaningless matter when we have so many other important issues to discuss (Amelia Peabody Emerson to her husband Radcliffe Emerson, Lion in the Valley, by Elizabeth Peters, Avon Books, ©2001. p. 156).”

Much like our heroine here, I frequently find myself distracted by meaningless matters, some serious, some not. And, as a result, I have invested many years in developing the knack of quickly determining the onset of a meaningless matter and swiftly instituting corrective measures. Certainly, it can be done, some matters being dispatched very easily. Others, like spiritual warfare, require nothing short of supernatural power, a necessity for which God has well-provided.

Yes, take heart, Gentle Reader; God’s power is available, reliable and true. And, once again, by employing Scriptural Practices and by the process of asking for such empowerment, God’s power becomes ever-present, ever-ready, and enduring to the believer. Not to mention a great comfort.

Not only God’s power but also his protection and provision are always available for the asking, reliable and true. Knowing this, every morning I exercise the Scriptural Practice of putting on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18, NKJV)—a major protection and provision against all meaningless matters. Just how do I do that you wonder?

Well, I pray. In a daily morning prayer I begin by thanking God for his availability and trustworthiness. Next, I confess my sins—rebellion, going it on my own, etc. Then I ask God to cleanse me anew of my sins in the precious blood of Jesus and to fill me anew with Holy Spirit—to be filled and led by Holy Spirit.

After that, I follow the instructions of Ephesians 6: I remind myself before God that I must daily put on His full armor—I must know His Word (belt), believe it (shield,) and use it (sword); freely forgive (footgear); be conformed to the image of Jesus (breastplate); and know with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY that I am saved from sins past, present and future (helmet).

Thus cleansed and filled in the spirit and dressed in the armor, I now ask God’s help in several ways: help to draw on His strength and mighty power in all things; help to use my fighting spirit (fight response) to resist, refute and rebuke the enemy; help to “walk in a manner worthy,” and “conduct myself in a manner worthy” of the Lord (by coming into step with indwelling Holy Spirit). I also remind myself that there will always be various and many trials and to count them all joy (that means to see them as an opportunity, looking with anticipation to how God will help me in and through them). Further, I recommit to daily holding my thoughts, my feelings and my will captive to the Lord Jesus and to practice, practice, practice all these provisions and protections.

Lastly (that is before I proceed to my petitions), I ask him for more helps: help to use my fears (flight response) to always panic-and-pray (as a one-two punch to fear); help to commit my day to Him, asking Him to be with me in it; help to remember to pray my way through and let prayer steady me through . . . everything; help to always look for and recognize and appreciate His presence and person, promptings, protections and provisions in my day.

These are the focus-finding moments of my day, Gentle Reader. I do not venture into any day without them. I submit all to God. And, believe me, learning to submit to God in all things takes a lifetime and more. No believer is a finished work until she/he is glorified (a finished work) in eternity.

To be continued . . .

132 Fear Not!

Meaning: “conveying a significance that is not directly expressed . . .”

Fear not? Yes, fear not!

Old Testament Scripture basically has two applications of the Hebrew verb for fear (Hebrew, v. yârê, Strong’s #3372), Dear Reader: one, yârê is used primarily as an injunction to appreciate God and holy places and means respect or reverence; and two, yârê means to be afraid. Yârê is used in the Bible close to 330 times (Vine’s, p. 79). Psalm 23 verse 4 (NKJV), “I will fear (yârê) no evil” can be said to mean all three— meaning to neither reverence, respect, nor be afraid of evil.

Scripture adjures one repeatedly to “fear not,” meaning to not be afraid of evil from the world the flesh or the devil. And for good reason: God is greater than any or all three combined. In the New Testament, Scripture says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28, NKJV. Greek v. phobeo, Strong’s #5399; to be frightened, alarmed; to reverence).”

Yet the most subtle and pervasive enemy—the Trickster— persists in trying to defeat believers. So let’s explore this subject a bit more.

As mentioned earlier, the Trickster finds it most effective to repeat attacks on the believer through the mind, with condemning phrases such as “You’ll never get it right! You’ll never be good enough! You’ll never be worthy!” And, of course, the Trickster is half right here, Gentle Reader. One will never get things all right, one will never be good enough, one will never be worthy . . . not on one’s own.

BUT, again, fear not Gentle Reader. Believers are truly blessed. In Christ Jesus one’s faith is accounted to one as righteousness and because of the voluntary transaction in His own blood, Jesus can promise one, He can literally promise one, that one will finally get things right (when glorified in eternity), will be good enough (conformed to His character), will be worthy (as He is worthy). What a blessing among so many more in Christ!

Just think of it as good mental health practices to resist such alarming, self-pitying thoughts. Instead, practice the Scriptural resistance techniques against them that we covered in Blog #131 and also the Scriptural injunction that one is to “fear no evil.” God will honor and reward one’s efforts if one faithfully persists.

Never fear, Gentle Reader. Mark 1:24 (NKJV) demonstrates how the Enemy and his cohorts recognize Jesus and respond to His authority: “saying, ‘Let us alone! What have we to do with you Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!’”

And Mark 1:27b (NKJV) goes on to say “For with authority He commands the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” This and other exchanges between Jesus and unclean spirits (Mark 5:1-20, NKJV; Legion) demonstrates the reality of “demons,” while also demonstrating Jesus’ power and authority over them, and therefore, the believer’s power and authority against their influence; As Mark 16:17a (NKJV) says, “And these signs will follow those who believe; In my name they will cast out demons.”

Believers do not have to fear (be afraid of) the “demons” of stray thoughts and mixed messages with resulting negative emotion and corrupted will, or “a demon behind every bush” for that matter (Ephesians 1:3, NKJV, "Blessed be the God and Father or our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing . . ."). Scripture insists that it is the believer’s great blessing that “If God is for us who can be against us (Romans 8:31, NKJV)?”

So, trust God, keep the faith and fear not!

As each and every faithful believer can glean from relationship with God over time, Gentle Reader, His blessings are durable indeed.

To be continued . . .

131 Beware Fear!

Meaning: “conveying a significance that is not directly expressed . . .”

With the last few blogs as background, Attentive Reader, it becomes evident that the occasional thought, if not disciplined immediately, can easily expand into habitual thoughts, going from simple to more complex behaviors along the way. In addition to guilt and discouragement, fear is a good example of the phenomena. Consider how indulging the self-pitying thought I’ll never be good enough can provoke the emotion of fear. Now consider that a simple fear can expand to chronic anxiety along the way to ingrained paranoia. It happens all the time, Gentle Reader. Beware of fear!

There are specific Scriptural Practices throughout the Bible meant to be used to resist such attacks by the Trickster. Pangs of fear (as fiery darts of Satan, Ephesians 6) can be resisted by consciously confronting them. Simply pray (remember: Prayer is the battle and we fight that battle on our knees) saying, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I bind and banish you, spirit of fear, and command you to be gone and do not come back. Go back to hell where you belong! And I replace you with the Word, “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV).” At this point, thank the Lord Jesus for His provision of power and authority in spiritual warfare, for His interest in one’s life and well-being, His caring and availability.

Then, do not snatch it (fear) back. It is surprisingly tempting to hold onto negative thoughts, feelings and will, Gentle Reader. So the “do not snatch it back” advisory is truly relevant, to say the least. Ask Jesus for His help in resisting the temptation every time it appears.

Now if one has the habit of fear already well set within one, this is called bondage. One can even think of it as an addiction to fear. Negative emotions can be very stimulating, making for a form of “thrill ride” that can over-attract the unsuspecting mind.

To be free of this bondage or addiction and attraction, say with passion to Jesus in prayer, “Lord, I want to be free of bondage. I don’t want to live in bondage to thoughts and emotion and a perverse will any longer. Free me!” And He will! Because He can. As one builds a relationship of relying on Him again and again, one will develop quite a history of repeated success against the Enemy’s determined attacks—all because of Jesus. I know of no other one with such power to help and heal.

Anyway, repeat that process with the next fiery dart of fear and the next. The attacks do become less and less frequent on any one subject with persistence, petering out to nothing, until and or unless the Enemy thinks one has let down one’s guard in that area or drifted into complacency. Then, of course, in comes a fresh volley of darts—but, fear not, just redeploy your practices and remember the words of the old song, “The Lord God Almighty has never failed me yet!” And keep moving.

To be continued . . .

130 Beware Discouragement!

Meaning: “conveying a significance that is not directly expressed . . .”

In Blog #129, I said I would go into how to resist, refute and rebuke the Trickster. Chiefly, I promised to explain how, in a nutshell, we best come against the Enemy by holding our thoughts, our feelings and our will captive to the Lord Jesus. You see, Dear Reader, the Trickster uses our thoughts to get to our emotions, which disrupts our will. That simple. That direct.

So when we interrupt that process by calling on Jesus and His power by Holy Spirit to anchor our thoughts, feelings and will in His Peace, to anchor them in His reasoning and His perfect value system; He keeps the Enemy from interfering with, blinding and tormenting us. As we learn over time not to indulge specious thinking, as we learn not to let emotion, especially negative emotion like guilt, rule our lives, and as we learn to keep our will congruent with that of the Lord; we prosper, much to the chagrin of the Trickster.

There is quite a list of negative emotions the Trickster’s poisonous thoughts can elicit. For example, guilt and discouragement are “partners in crime,” so to speak, Gentle Reader. As is true on the subject of guilt is true on the subject of discouragement: Remembering that attack from the Trickster comes, so often, through the mind and is aimed at our emotions, it is easy to see how a stray thought such as “I’ll never be good enough” is meant to disturb our emotions, to stir up guilt and then discouragement and ultimately despair (Blog #128)! Thus, beware discouragement!

Other negative emotions capable of being provoked by stray thoughts and mixed messages are pride, recklessness, fear, anger, humiliation, rage, hatred, bitterness, revenge, hostility, anxiety, worry, obsession, gluttony, lusts, misery, etc. Such emotions are never appropriate. God wants us to reject such emotions. He wants us to seize the stray thoughts and mixed messages meant to launch them, to bind and banish them, replace them with His Word, and not snatch them back.

God wants one to be ruled by His peace, His reasoning, and His value system, to let these things control one's life (Philippians 4:8-9; Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, . . . noble, . . . just, . . . pure, . . . lovely, . . . of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”). He wants us to inwardly resist, refute and rebuke the enemy regularly in Christ’s name, as a way of life. It is one’s protection.

As mentioned in Blog #126, lies, half truths, doubts and discouragement regularly assail our thinking because the Enemy knows we do not naturally discern (though we must learn to) between our own thoughts and those he can slip in. Sly insinuations in the form of a stray thought, or thoughts provoked by mixed messages in ordinary conversation, media messages, visual provocations, irrational arguments, and so on and so on, can play havoc with orderly mental processes, usually stable emotions, and good will. If one remembers that the Trickster counts on half-truths, through the Name of Christ Jesus of Nazareth one can successfully reject guilt-trips springing from stray thoughts and mixed messages from any source.

To be continued . . .