“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” C.S. Lewis
Imagine sitting naked just outside a tomb overlooking a vast body of water. You hear voices in your head, but no one is around. Thoughts telling you all kinds of horrible things about yourself.
This is the story of two, not one, but two men…until Jesus came to bring peace, order and calm to their lives.
You are not naked like them, but I can imagine the noise going on inside your head as you follow Jesus. Your enemy is most likely screaming, “You’re crazy. You’re stupid. You’re unforgivable. You’re ugly. You’re worthless. You’re inept. You’re fill in the blank.”
Our enemy knows that our lives are changed by the renewing of our minds. So, he will use all kinds of competing thoughts to distract, deceive and destroy our peace of mind and our wills to continue to follow Jesus (2 Cor. 10:1-6).
If, we let him. We cannot not hear/think those voices/thoughts. But using the FREEdom process, we can shut them down once they come.
Match what you are hearing with the truths the Spirit gives as you stay in the Scriptures. Anything that goes against them, shut ‘em down by telling the voices/thoughts to shut up in Jesus name. Then focus on and actually practice the truths the Spirit gives you. Peace will return (Is. 26:3).
Jesus was born in Bethlehem to grow up to defeat the author of our head noise. He brought peace, order and calm to those two naked men. He can do the same for you: head noise be gone and peace return!
Monthly Archives: December 2019
Nip the Problem in the Bud
“I, as a child of God, belong to heaven and God. It is not a question of giving up sin, but of giving up my right to myself, my natural independence and self-assertiveness, and this is where the battle has to be fought.” Oswald Chambers
I spent almost two hours asking the Lord to show me what was going on inside me. Why focus there? Because sin doesn’t just happen!
According to the analogy used in James 1, temptation is merely an opportunity presenting itself for us to handle life our way or what James calls our “own evil desire”.
This desire – something we set our heart on doing – is only brought to the surface by the temptation. Then as we mull this desire over in our head, instead of eliminating it, we progress to the next step – conception.
In following James’ analogy, though, there is a gap between conception and birth. The struggle is not sin. Sin is when we act on or give birth to our desires, the “my way of handling life” wiring inside our head and heart. This is why Scripture tells us to focus our efforts on the first step of renewing our mind, not on the last step of changing our behavior.
Mom used to call this nipping the problem in the bud. You never let the flower bloom, sin in this case, because you cut it off before it does.
If you don’t deal with the inside, sin will be the result. But if you change what’s inside, you automatically remove sin before it ever happens.
We don’t need people to hold us accountable not to sin, the last step. No, we need accountability to the life-change FREEdom process that enables us to nip the problem in the bud/our thinking, the first step.
This is true biblical Christianity – people whose lives have been changed, not those who merely talk about life change.
Who is your first step accountability to life-change partner?
Be Glad You Don’t Know
“You worry about the hidden will of God? It’s none of your business. If it was, He would have revealed it to you.” R.C. Sproul
I recently finished a very physically and mentally challenging program. I know the Lord led me to it. And I absolutely know He got me through it as well.
Just this past weekend, during a Go Group activity (doing something I already do with those who need Jesus), I realized just how much strength and power the Spirit (Zechariah 4:6) gave me to get through that program. I still ache a week after it ended!
Now, if God had told me before I entered the program just how many different types of pushups I would do, how many bags of ice and ibuprofen pills I would need, and how many times I would grind my bad shoulder, I probably wouldn’t have even started training for the program, let alone enter it!
Yet, I am extremely thankful that He didn’t. I learned so many life lessons about Him for having gone through it.
One of those lessons comes out of Proverbs 3:5-6. God makes our paths straight. This implies there will be bends in the road that we can’t see around.
There will be many times we simply will not know what lies ahead. And we should be glad about not knowing too!
The Spirit doesn’t tell us everything we want to know on this side of the bend. We couldn’t handle it and would probably quit in the process if He did.
You don’t need to know everything. That’s God’s job. Your job is simply to love Jesus by following where He leads, even when you can’t see around that bend.