★ Thought for the Day – What’s Your Blanket? ★

Yesterday we had a strong thunderstorm roll through our area that brought lighting and hail which got me thinking about this this Thought for the Day.  What comes to mind when you read the title of this post?  If you were like me, and grew up with the classic TV show “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” an image of Linus with his security blanket may come to mind.  Or maybe you may be thinking about the Downy Infusions Calm TV Commercial that shows a cute little boy who is awakened by a thunder and lightning storm outside.  As he runs down the hall scared to Mommy and climbs onto her bed, he smells a fragrance coming from one of the blankets that immediately calms him by the lavender scent. Instead of staying in bed with his Mommy, he grabs the blanket and goes back to his bed smelling it all the way.  While I could write about either one of these, the inspiration came from my “four-legged son” Jake, who like the frightened young boy, is also terrified by thunderstorms and goes running to his “Mommy.”  We always know when a storm is coming because Jake starts shaking like a leaf and incessantly panting.  And last night was no different, he was a mess and would not calm down.  I remember one day, my wife sent me these photos because Jake was freaking out so bad that he pushed his way into the shower and then tried climbing onto the bed.

Now as you may be chuckling, it’s actually really sad to see him suffering so bad from the anxiety of the impending storm.  No amount of petting or hugging or soothing words could settle Jake down.  Only one thing helps him…

His ThunderShirt.  Forgive me if this seems like a promotion, but it really works (and I receive no kickbacks for saying so, hahaha!)  The website says that it…

“Applies gentle, constant pressure, similar to swaddling an infant.”

In the post ★ Thought for the Day – Annihilating Anxiety ★, I shared Philippians 4:6-7 (NASB) which says:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

In the post, we talked about how if we go to God with our anxieties, He WILL be help us through anything!!  A common misconception of Christianity is that once you give your life over to God, and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, everything in your life should be sunshine and roses!  BUT THAT SIMPLY IS NOT TRUE!  We live in a fallen, broken world in which God-fearing, Jesus believing, Holy Spirit filled Christians lose their jobs, contract cancer, or experience the death of a loved one.  However, the Bible offers encouragement throughout the pages which can help us to deal with our worry and fear, which is of course is completely normal to experience as we go through the storms of life.  In the post ★ Thought for the Day – Be Strong and Courageous ★, I shared about our daughter heading to Atlanta for a three-day training camp before heading to Eswatini (formally known as Swaziland) and South Africa for a two-month Missions Trip, and the anxiety we were feeling having our first-born child on the other side of the world over 9,000 miles away from us!  God spoke to me through Joshua 1:6-9 to “Be strong and courageous” and trust that she would be alright.  Well the 2 months came and went, and she arrived safely home from Africa with incredible stories of how God worked in and through her.

Today I would like to unpack the context of the anchor passage of Philippians 4:6-7 because as you have heard me say in the past, context is everything.  Like anything, it always come down to a choice.

• Will you CHOOSE to WORRY or TRUST God?
• Will you CHOOSE to TRY TO CONTROL EVERYTHING or LET GO and LET GOD HANDLE IT?
• Will you CHOOSE to LISTEN TO THE LIES OF DEVIL that God is not good, or WILL YOU REMEMBER how He took care of you in the past and BELIEVE that God is faithful?

So, let’s look at the verses that bookend our anchor passage that can help us find where true comfort can be found.  Philippians 4:4-5 (NLT) says:

“Always be full of joy in the Lord.  I say it again—rejoice!  Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do.  Remember, the Lord is coming soon.”

That is a tough one, right?  To “always be full of joy,” easier said than done, but the way we gain victory is “in the Lord,” not through “white-knuckle” effort on our part.  The only think we must do is choose to believe that the Lord is good, that He is for us and not against us, and that He is able to do more than we can ever expect!  As we do this, then the need of a “security blanket” to comfort us through the “storms” will not be necessary.  Comfort which typically is not a blanket or ThunderShirt but rather something that comes from a bottle, prescription or something altogether illegal.  Comfort items that before I came to Christ, I tried to fill the void in my heart but to no avail!  Depression, fear, anxiety WILL NEVER BE CURED with another drink, pill or _______ (fill in the blank.)  If only I knew the truth of Philippians 4 back then!

Let’s look at the other book end which is Philippians 4:8-9 (NLT) which is the application portion…

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.  Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me — everything you heard from me and saw me doing.  Then the God of peace will be with you.”

What we focus on is what we will experience.  We need to “keep putting into practice” and as we do our faith will be built up and our worry will wither away!  It is all about discipline and training ourselves to look to God instead of whatever “blanket” we got to which only covers the problem, it will never fix the root issue!  I will close with this truth from Jimmy Evans,

“Fear is expecting the Devil to move.  Faith is expecting God to move.” 

And in John 16:33 (The Passion Translation) Jesus made this promise…

“And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!””

Through a relationship with Jesus, you can conquer the world!

If you want to develop that relationship, check out these posts:

★ Thought for the Day – I Hate Religion and I’m a Christian… ★

★ Thought for the Day – I Hate Religion and I’m a Christian…Part 2 ★ 

“The Power of Peace” by Jimmy Evans. He shares a message about the gift and power of God’s peace and how to fight for it in our lives.

 

 

★ Thought for the Day – What is Your Download Speed? ★

Do you know what this is?

If you are old enough to recognize this, here is a trip down memory lane so that you can listen what internet connectivity sounded like back in 1990-something!  Click this link to Hear

For those who have never experienced the dial-up connection speed of the classic 56k modem, it would sometimes take 5-10 minutes to connect to the World Wide Web and many times it would fail, making you start the process all over again.  Those were dark days for browsing the internet and sending/receiving emails!  Hahaha!  What a different world we live in today as we now walk around with supercomputers in the palm of our hand, and if it takes 5 seconds to load a web page, or if an email does not send immediately it feels like forever!  Today the “FCC has defined broadband, or fast internet, as internet with download speeds of at least 25 Mbps and upload speeds of at least 3 Mbps since 2015.”  Many people geek out on download speeds but did you know that there was an Old Testament character who had a download speed that crushed 25 Mbps.

Today’s Thought was inspired from a passage that is not widely preached or read…2 Kings 6:24-30 (NLT) which says:

“Some time later, however, King Ben-hadad of Aram mustered his entire army and besieged Samaria. As a result, there was a great famine in the city. The siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a cup of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver.

Forgive the introduction but can you say EWWWWWW… “a cup of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver!!!”  That must have been one long siege that not only was it worth so much, but that the people were actually so hungry that they ate dove’s feces!!!  Yuck!  Okay, back to the passage…

“One day as the king of Israel (Jehoram) was walking along the wall of the city, a woman called to him, “Please help me, my lord the king!”

He answered, “If the Lord doesn’t help you, what can I do? I have neither food from the threshing floor nor wine from the press to give you.” But then the king asked, “What is the matter?”

She replied, “This woman said to me: ‘Come on, let’s eat your son today, then we will eat my son tomorrow.’ So we cooked my son and ate him. Then the next day I said to her, ‘Kill your son so we can eat him,’ but she has hidden her son.”

When the king heard this, he tore his clothes in despair. And as the king walked along the wall, the people could see that he was wearing burlap under his robe next to his skin.” 

2 Kings 6:24-30 is one of the most disturbing passages ever!  I cannot believe that the two women even discussed the idea of killing their children, and then worse yet eating them!  But if that’s not sick enough, the fact that one of the women did kill her son with and eat him with the other woman is absolutely unbelievable!!!  I believe if I were in that situation, I would sacrifice myself first!  Disturbing!!!!  I looked up this passage in a commentary and they pointed out that God warned Israel that this curse would come upon the Israelites if they rejected the covenant they made with Him, I don’t have time to unpack this, but check out Deuteronomy 28:52-53 for the context.  But what I wanted to point was what King Jehoram said in 2 Kings 6:31:

“May God strike me and even kill me if I don’t separate Elisha’s head from his shoulders this very day,” the king vowed.”

God promised back in Deuteronomy that a curse was coming if the people disobeyed Him but instead of blaming God, King Jehoram decided to take it out on the Prophet Elisha that the siege happened and was ready to kill him!  It was 2 Kings 6:32-33 (NLT) that blew me away when I read it the other morning!

“Elisha was sitting in his house with the elders of Israel when the king (Jehoram) sent a messenger to summon him.  But before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders,

“A murderer (the King of Israel) has sent a man to cut off my head.  When he arrives, shut the door and keep him out.  We will soon hear his master’s steps following him.”

While Elisha was still saying this, the messenger arrived.  And the king said, “All this misery is from the Lord!  Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?””

Did you catch it??  Elisha got an instant download from God that danger was approaching!  How amazing is that?  The Prophet Elisha was so connected to God that he received an immediate alert that danger was coming for him.  In the post, ★ Thought for the Day – The Holy Spirit is Our Spider Sense ★, we looked at how the Holy Spirit is our “early warning system” about the activities of the enemy, similar to how Spiderman, The Holy Spirit is “Our Spider Sense.”  Just like Elisha, when we have a connection to the Holy Spirit, we will have his protection.  Long before Elisha, God revealed in Job 33:14-18 (NLT) that:

“For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it.  He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds.  He whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings.  He makes them turn from doing wrong; he keeps them from pride.  He protects them from the grave, from crossing over the river of death.”

God is always speaking to us; the question is are we listening?  Just like God had promised Israel that He would bless them if they would obey, the same is true for us.  In Joel 2:12-13 (NLT), the prophet gave A Call to Repentance…

“That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.  Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.”  Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.  He is eager to relent and not punish.”

And just a few verses late in Joel 2:28 (NLT), the Lord made this promised:

“Then, after doing all those things,
    I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
    Your old men will dream dreams,
    and your young men will see visions.”

The amazing thing is that throughout history, God has been speaking to us, calling us back to Himself, desiring a relationship with you and I!  You may be saying to yourself, these passages are all from the Old Testament well I am glad you asked.  In Acts 2:17 (NLT), as Peter was addressing the people on the Day of Pentecost, he quoted Joel 2:28!

“‘In the last days,’ God says,
     ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young men will see visions,
     and your old men will dream dreams.”

I truly believe that we are living in the last days and that God is pouring out His Spirit for all who will seek Him… Today, you have the choice, will you open the book and find out for yourself!

I love the Bible and all that it offers…HOPE, LOVE and the PROMISE that God will never leave us or forsake us, as well as the truth of Romans 10:13 (NLT)…

“For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

The choice is yours!

Want to dig deeper?  If you are interested to read more on this topic check out these posts called:

★ Thought for the Day – The End is Near…? ★

★ Thought for the Day – Annihilating Anxiety ★

 

And if that is not enough here is a 3-part series about breaking through in your walk, through Prayer, the Word and Worship

★ “Back to the Basics” – Pursuit #1 – Opening the Pipeline ★

★ “Back to the Basics” – Pursuit #2 – What Are You Feeding On? ★

★ “Back to the Basics” – Pursuit #3 – Adoration That Matters ★

 

★ Thought for the Day – Annihilating Anxiety ★

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary Anxiety is the

“fear or nervousness about what might happen.” 

Have you ever suffered from anxiety?  Ever wondered how you were going to handle a situation at school that might result in a fight?  Or how to handle a co-worker / client that has been causing problems that will jeopardize meeting the project deadline?  Or perhaps where the money was going to come to pay for the mortgage at the end of the month?  Well statistically if you are reading this, you have experienced anxiety in one form or another.

“Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18% of the population.”  (Source: National Institute of Mental Health)

I certainly can be counted within that 40 million!   Today I want to pose this idea that we don’t need to live life this way.  Based on the Word of God we can ANNIHILATE ANXIETY!

But first let’s look at the definition again.  Anxiety is the “fear or nervousness about what MIGHT happen.”  MIGHT being the key word!  Now by no means am I lessening the significance of anxiety, quite the contrary, it is a very serious issue, one which will wreak havoc if left unabated.  I know myself, I will run scenario after scenario of how something will go or what my response will be “if    (fill in the blank)   happens.”  This is not necessarily a bad thing in some cases, in fact as an Architect it’s necessary to vet out different courses of action; but when it comes down to the difficult, life altering decisions, don’t you wish that you could hear from God for the right direction to go in?  Well I would submit that you can today, though it may not be audibly like in the past.

This peaked my interest and I started to look into the first (5) books of the Bible.  God spoke to:

• Adam in Genesis 2:15-17
• Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:8-19
• Cain in Genesis 4:3-16
• Noah in Genesis 6:9-22 and 9:1-3
• Abram/Abraham in Genesis 12:1-4,15:1-21, 17:1-22, 18:1-33, 19:27-29 and 22:1-18
• Jacob/Israel in Genesis 28:10-17, 32:22-30 35:1-15
• Moses in Exodus Chapters 3-10,  11-14, 16-18, 20 and many more throughout the rest of Exodus and the Books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy until he died in Deuteronomy Chapter 34!

In Deuteronomy 34:10 (NLT) it says that:

“There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”

Oh to be Moses right?  To have face to face contact with God!  I stopped here in my list though there are many other Old Testament characters who have heard audibly from God because it is Joshua, Moses’ successor who I think can be an encouragement to us today as the issues we face seem insurmountable!  But before we unpack how Joshua can help, there’s something else I would like to talk about first.  I shared with you in our last post, ★ Thought for the Day – Turn the Other Cheek ★, that I was having some stress because of someone who lied about me and that I had to take the high road and turn the other cheek instead of demanding vindication.  Today I am going to be vulnerable to you and reveal that it is much more than “some stress,” and that there have been more incidents that have caused extreme anxiety and poison in my Spirit.  And unfortunately I have allowed the venom to spill over into other areas of my life and steal my joy when I am away from work.  In fact I just had a heart to heart with my daughter to apologize for my words that have hurt her.  It is amazing how when anxiety is unchecked how it can run your life.  I have had trouble reading the bible and my quiet time with God has been lackluster at best and it is also why there has only been 1 post in the last two months but God is so merciful!  On Thursday morning (12/1/16), God spoke so clearly to me when I saw this notification from the Verse of the Day from the YouVersion Bible App:

Talk about a wake-up call!  Why am I discouraged?  Why is my heart so sad?  Great questions!  It’s because I had lost my way.  I had lost hope and my focus was distracted by the cares and worries of my life!

After seeing the Psalms I then stumbled onto this edit from Philippians 4:6-7 on twitter:

Then as I was driving to meet a buddy for breakfast I heard this song “Shoulders” from the band FOR KING & COUNTRY.  The lyrics are so powerful

When I’m caught deep in the valley
With chaos for my company
I’ll find my comfort here
‘Cause I know that You are near 

My help comes from You
You’re right here, pulling me through
You carry my weakness, my sickness, my brokenness all on Your shoulders
Your shoulders
My help comes from You
You are my rest, my rescue

What a great reminder. We need to be careful as we are “in the valley” that we don’t allow ourselves to be distracted by all the worries of the world and lose sight of the truth that we are never alone!  We have a father in heaven who loves us dearly and has provided His Son to be an example of how we should live.  And when Jesus walked this earth He would get alone and pray for help from His Father, (see Mark 1:35, Matthew 14:23, Luke 6:12, Luke 22:41-44.)  And so that is what we need to do too!  In addition to following His example, because I have trusted in Jesus, God has given me the Holy Spirit to live within me to be my comforter, (See John 14:16-18, 16:13).  The lyrics also brought me back to 1999 when I baptized on Easter and when I read Psalm 23 as part of my public declaration.  I wanted to share what verse 4 says:

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.”  Psalm 23:4 (ESV)

So God spoke to me through the Verse of the Day, Twitter, a song on the radio which brought up when I was baptized 17-1/2 years ago to speak into my Spirit that I am not alone and that even though I am walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I should not allow fear and anxiety to rule my life!  I told you that I was meeting a friend well he ended up oversleeping so while I waited for him, God gave me the idea to write this Thought and lead me to the final verse that He spoke to me in 1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)…

“Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.”

You see that God does still speak but we need to have our hearts in tune with Him.  In Hebrews 1:1-2 (ESV) it says that:

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

Do you know what the antidote to anxiety and fear?  In Hebrews 11:1 (NLT) we are the answer…FAITH!

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” 

My wife who suffered terribly from anxiety as a result of contracting Lyme’s Disease said this to me this morning:

“Anxiety is a mind game that forces you to choose fear or faith!”

It took her 3 long years to battle through the effects of this silent disease that so few people know about that affects your nervous system and causing extreme anxiety and panic attacks.  Today I am so thankful that she is able to work out again and has overcome the anxiety that once plagued her mind.  I saw this edit which is so fitting since she loved to workout…

“Faith doesn’t take the weight off your life.  It shows you how to handle it.”

We started off this post talking about the Old Testament characters that God spoke to and I left you hanging about Joshua, a man who had an extraordinary amount of faith!  Joshua lost his mentor, Moses and was given the mantle to lead an entire nation into the “Promised Land” with the understanding that he would have to go into battle against an overwhelming force with a plan that was completely dependent on God doing what He said He would.  In Joshua 6:2-5 (ESV) it says:

“And the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.  You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once.  Thus shall you do for six days.  Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark.  On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.  And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.’”

You can read that whole account here in Joshua 5:13-6:50.  I am reminded that I am not the only one who is facing insurmountable challenges.  Talk about some extreme faith!  Think about going to tell your army, “Okay everyone, I heard from the Lord and the plan is, we will walk around Jericho for 7 days and then at the end of the march, the priests will blow the trumpets and everyone will shout really loud and the walls will come down!”  That alone I think took a lot of faith but to actually go and do as God instructed is a completely different thing altogether!  What Joshua knew and what we need to know is that:

Is there something that you feel God wants you to do?  Could it be to be a friend to that person who sits alone every day at lunch?  Or to be a friend to someone you know going through a divorce or a terminal disease?  Or perhaps to invite that person to church that God has placed on your heart who you know is far from Him right now?

As the Advent season ramps up and the list of things to do grows, pause and ask God what could you do for someone else during this Christmas season.  I will close with the same encouragement that Joshua gave to the people of Israel:

Don’t let fear and anxiety rule your life and take away the joy of this season.  Have this mindset that:

If you are interested to read more on this topic check out these posts called:

★ Thought for the Day – You Are Chosen! ★

★ Thought for the Day – Overwhelmed or Overcoming? ★

 

★ Thought for the Day – got fear? ★

After a long day at work handling the pressures and demands of the job, then coming home and juggling the kid’s schedules, then dinner…then the bedtime ritual with them (whatever that looks like in your house)….you collapse into bed without a single ounce of energy left.  But instead of drifting off to a much-needed 8 hours of sleep, you lay awake thinking about the mistakes of the day, things that have to be done tomorrow, and every other possible problem that exists or could possibly happen.  Why does this happen?  I think that it is from fear!

Linda Godsey put it this way

“Did you know that behind every fear there is a lie?  I once heard someone say that the letters of the word fear stand for…In other words, fear comes from believing lies.”

I love acrostics and I love the advice here…when we are not grounded in the truth of God’s Word, the Bible, then we are open to attack from the Devil who will scream lies to cloud your mind which leads to fear.

Here are some truths for your stand on:

“But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?”  Psalms 56:3-4 (NLT)

“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.  When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.  When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.  When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”  Isaiah 43:1b-3a (NLT)  

The truth in both of these powerful scriptures is that:

• WE WILL have fear.
• WE WILL go through difficult situations.
• WE WILL face heat in our lives

But the answer to all of these realities is to TRUST GOD and KNOW THAT WE ARE HIS and that no mater what the oppression, God will be there with us.

“Fear can keep you up all night, but faith makes one fine pillow.”

And I will close with Psalms 4:8 (NLT) that puts this “Thought for the Day” to bed…pun intended.

“In peace I will lie down and sleep,
for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.” 

Tonight if you can’t sleep, start to pray and ask God for His peace to come over you and quiet your anxious thoughts.

If you would like to read more on the subject, check out:

★ Thought for the Day – Crippled By Doubt ★