“My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.” James 5:19-20 NIV
Speak the truth of the Word of God! We do not know who it will be that we are in contact with that needs to hear it.
This verse is of great significance to me. Five years ago, I was living as one who had wandered from the truth. There was someone who was bold enough to tell me the truth about the lies I was believing. She turned “a sinner from the error of their way.” And she saved me “from death” and covered “over a multitude of sins” in my life. I am so grateful!
When we walk in error/ sin, we need someone who will stand firm on the Word of God and tell us the Truth in the Word. It is the only way for us to live free!
Don’t be afraid to be thought of as different, radical, or extreme! God wants to use you to bring back His children to Him!
Today is Mark 14:32-72 ❤️🙌🔥 for the “Bible Book of the Month Club — The Gospel of Mark”
What seemed to be Peter’s entire world was falling apart right in front of him. The One he left everything to follow, Jesus, had been arrested and wasn’t even trying to defend Himself. I can imagine the dismay and unbelief the enemy was enticing Peter with.
Denying Jesus was one thing, but trying to prove you have had nothing to do with by cursing and swearing was another. Then the rooster crowed and Peter remembered what Jesus had told him. “He broke down and wept.”
I have been where Peter was and I can identify. Things weren’t going my way. God wasn’t doing what I wanted Him to. So I decided to do things my way… I tried to distance myself from Him, but keeping just enough of Jesus to “keep my fire insurance current.” What a miserable way to live. Especially if you have had an authentic relationship with Jesus, but have drifted away. I’m pretty sure this is why Peter wept. Once you have tasted and seen the goodness of God, everything else is empty.
Thankfully Peter’s story does not end at the end of Mark 15. Jesus restored his relationship. Thankfully my story did not end with me adrift, living my life my ways…not God’s. Jesus restored my relationship.
How about you? Can you relate to Peter and me? Your story does not have to end in sorrow! Surrender to God is the pathway to peace. Come to Him!
Today is a very special day for me. After many years of being held captive by anxiety and trying many things to get free, God heard my cry for freedom and set me free. After 6 years on anxiety meds, I no longer needed them. Two years ago on this date was my first day of freedom from taking both Prozac and Buspar.
God has worked a change in my life, and for those of you who know me, it may be a bit of a surprise for me to tell you this. Because I have always been active in church and made it no secret that I believed in Jesus. In fact, I have thought throughout my adult years that I was living my life surrendered to God. The truth is In some ways I was, but in many ways I was not. ‘Make no mistake, God wants all of us.
About 5 months prior to taking my last anxiety pill I was at a revival service at my church with Pastor Denbow speaking (October 2021). He was speaking about “syncretism”- trying to mix the gospel with the worlds ways. In that service I realized that I had been trying to mix secular humanist thought and practices, as well as the widely accepted practice of eastern meditation, with the Bible. That does not work! In my love for God, He does not want to compete with me having other “spiritual” lovers — my ways or the worlds. He wants all of me, all of my heart— entirely, totally, and completely given up to Him. This is Teachings that the Bible Study group WOW has helped me to come to understand better and better through the past few years. (God has used WOW tremendously in my life to help me walk in freedom)
At that revival 2 1/2 years ago, I went to the front and repented for the sin I had held in my heart, and told God He could have all of me. On a morning, shortly after that I went to my pill box and heard the Holy Spirit tell me “that is not your inheritance.” I quit one medicine instantly. The other one I weaned off and took my last pill almost 5 months later.
Two years later to this day, I am free! The change in me since that time has been huge. So much so that I have told my friends, “I feel like I have been born again…again.”
Friday night I was talking to my husband, his brother, and my sister in law about this change. I said it almost makes you think about getting baptized again. I didn’t think I needed to since I was baptized as a teenager. Saturday morning I woke up with the desire to be baptized burning within my heart.
So tonight, I am going to be baptized. I want to publicly declare that I have been changed by Jesus and His power alone. I want to do whatever He tells me to do. Because He is life. And I do not want my way of doing things ever again. They have died. I am raised to new life.
“I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” Romans 6:19-22 NIV
For several years, I lived my life subjected to the cruel taskmaster of anxiety. It ruled over my life. Anxiety dictated my daily routine: Get out of bed. Take your first anxiety pill of the day: Do your daily exercise of Eastern Meditation on Headspace. Now start your day. Throughout the day anxiety would exercise its control over my feelings and emotions. Time to do breathing techniques, practice mindfulness, engage in the 5,4,3,2,1 method, then repeat. Often, I could not shake the feelings of a tight throat and a tight chest. Then it was time for my evening anxiety pill. I crawled into bed. I hoped for a night free of an anxious awakening at 2 am, lying awake for hours, and experiencing what I did in the day. This scenario was repeated day after day, night after night. I was a slave to my sin of anxiety. I was subject to its control, and it was producing death, darkness, and destruction inside of me.
Our verses this week are once again about holiness. This holiness is a benefit as we live our lives as “slaves to righteousness.” It is a life of freedom from sin as we live our lives set apart for His sacred use – a life of love, faith, holiness, and prayer. In this life, we are “slaves to God,” under His control and His rule. This submission to Him is always for our benefit, because He is a good Lord and Master. Being His slave results in more than holiness. Through it we experience “eternal life.”
Three years ago, I learned that we were created to serve someone. The words of this verse were proved true in my life. I came to understand that I had a choice. I could continue to “offer the parts of my body in slavery to impurity and ever-increasing wickedness” that the sin of anxiety was producing, or I could become a “slave to God.” I would either serve an evil master of sin or our loving and Holy God. I could not serve them both. I had to choose. This is the truth for each and every one of us. To not choose God is to choose the enemy.
God is holy. He is perfectly and impeccably pure, completely immaculate, and uncompromisingly righteous and just. He desires for us to be in relationship with Him, but in order for us to be close to Him, we must be holy as He is holy. To do so, we must “offer ourselves as slaves to righteousness.” The benefit we receive is a pure heart and freedom from sin and sinful affections, conformed to the image of God. We will be holy and the “result will be eternal life” with Him.
As you have read the words above, have you become aware that you are a “slave to impurity?” Is there an addiction or a sin that keeps you from experiencing a close relationship with God and the freedom from sin that He alone gives? God desires for us to live our lives surrendered to Him as a “slave to righteousness” that will lead to holiness. He desires us to be close to Him in a relationship of intimacy filled with His goodness, joy, peace, and love. We can only experience this when we live our lives fully surrendered to Him!
Our song this week is once again by Charity Gayle, “Because of Jesus.” Because of what Jesus has done, we can know that we are finally free of the sin that destroys! He has redeemed us and made us holy as He is holy. May our hearts desire to serve Him in complete obedience to His Word. May we live as His “slaves to righteousness” which leads to holiness – holiness in heart and in everything we do!
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 NIV
I have been thinking a lot about the devil’s tactics to steal, kill, and destroy. It’s probably because I am teaching a Bible class about that very thing. The verse above has been on my heart and in my mind. Last night, I actually had a dream with regards to it.
In my dream there was an African lion, with a large mane. It was prowling about the parameter of my house. It was waiting for someone or something to wander from the safety of my home. The lion could not penetrate that safety. It waited, watching me and everyone who lived with me and our every move. Then Snowy, my Great Pyrenees went outside of the safe zone of my house. The lion attacked and she was torn to shreds. I was so heartbroken.
I retell this dream because this really is how our enemy, Satan, works. As we abide in the safe zone of God’s dwelling, which is Himself, we have nothing to fear.
“God is our refuge and strength…” Psalms 46:1 NIV
He is our only defense against Satan and his destruction.
The problems come when we wander from His safety. It is when we decide we don’t really want to dwell up close to God, which requires: total submission, total obedience, and total dependence on Him. We would rather have things our way. So we try to keep one foot inside of His protective zone and one foot outside of it. This is living like we did before we came to know Him. It is there the enemy prowls. He knows when we are vulnerable, and then he attacks, shredding us to pieces. His destruction in our lives has ripple effects reaching to our spouses, kids, family, friends, and beyond.
There is one other zone I would be remiss to not mention. It is where those who have not even come close to God at all dwell outside of safety. If you are there, you are in grave danger. You may not believe in the lion who prowls, but he believes in you and there is nothing he would like better than to destroy you! In fact, if you are honest, he has already begun to destroy your life.
So why all this talk about lions and dreams this morning? There is only one safe place. It is close to Jesus dwelling in Him. It is relationship with Him. As we abide in Him, we will hear the lion roar from a distance, but we are in the safe zone having nothing to fear.
Where do you live your life? Are you wandering far from the safety of Jesus? Are you exploring the edges of your safe zone by playing around with sin? Or are you snuggled up close to Jesus, as close as you can get? Are you daily desiring to be even closer obeying, submitting, and depending on him? That is the only safe place to be.
I had an awesome conversation with my niece Emily yesterday regarding evil. That conversation and a prayer request for a man who was contemplating and then eventually took his life yesterday has been on my heart this morning. So as usual what’s on my heart gets pecked out by my fingers in writing:
“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” John 10:10 AMPC
One of the biggest deceptions of Satan is to get us to thinking that he isn’t that big of a deal or that he doesn’t even exist. We need to be aware of his existence and we need to know his purpose! Satan’s main purpose and goal is to steal from us, to kill the life that God has given us, and to destroy our lives. It is what occupies every thought in his mind and every action he takes. He hates God and since we are the ones God loves so much, he hates us! We NEED to be aware that we have an enemy, and this enemy will go to great lengths to destroy our lives and to lead us to death, darkness, and destruction. Satan is a liar. That is how he communicates. Nothing but lies stream from his mouth. His ability to lie is like none other, because he makes his lies sound like truth. He is the great deceiver His lies are believable. They seem like they are what we should be following. They appeal to our self- life, who we are without God’s new heart He gives us. His lies are a constant attack on the TRUTH. The Truth is the Word of God. We will live our lives constantly beat up by his onslaught as long as we refuse to follow God wholeheartedly and we refuse to be in relationship with God through prayer and taking in His Word, the Bible. Consider where you are in your relationship with God. Are you close to God? If you are not, you are susceptible to the attacks of the evil one. You will experience the loss caused by satan’s stealing from you. You will experience the death of goodness in the situations you come against. Your life will be destroyed. Jesus offers us differently. Jesus said He came that we would have abundant life. We choose. (More on this later)
I’m not sure when it started, the drift. My best guess is 5 years ago, maybe more.. That’s why it’s called a drift. You just slowly give up on or slowly release your determination to believe one way and shift another way. Then all of a sudden you wake up and realize you’re not where you used to be spiritually. Those around you may not even know you’ve been evolving slowly because you’ve been looking for and developing reasons to justify your unbelief.
My drift has stopped! Thank God! The past couple of years God has pulled me out of it and set me back on course. But every once and awhile I find myself thinking like I did when I was adrift. God has been faithful to point out “Is that really the truth?” To me over and over.
The past few weeks my eyes have been opened to another area I had let drift away- a desire to listen to the Holy Spirit’s direction, to hunger for Him to show me His will, and the earnest prayer for Him to fill me full of Him. I had put them in a file in my head called “Dangerous Prayers”.
In my mind “Dangerous Prayers” were… well… dangerous. Dangerous because it would require me to step out in faith as opposed to hovering in the shadows of fear. Dangerous because I would have to let go of my plans, my choices, and my will and obey God. That’s the irony of it all “Dangerous Prayers” are dangerous to a heart that wants to drift. Because once you pray them, sincerely and from the heart you are no longer drifting and flirting with unbelief.
“Dangerous Prayers” are really only dangerous to one person, our enemy, Satan. Our enemy knows the moment we sincerely pray from our heart to the Holy Spirit asking Him to fill us full of Him and to make us sensitive to His voice with a heart of sincere obedience, his plans for our demise are done. No wonder the enemy wants us to believe that prayers of surrender are dangerous!
Maybe it’s just me the enemy tries this on, but I bet it’s not. He tries to convince me that if I pray “Dangerous Prayers” then he will put me in his crosshairs and aim his firey darts more frequently. I assure you as one who has been there and done that, this could not be any more false. His attacks are relentless no matter if you cower in a corner afraid to pray or stand boldly declaring God’s Word and His Power. All the more reason to pray the “dangerous prayers”. The only safe place to be is “IN THE LORD our refuge and fortress”, and the best way to get there is to pray the “Dangerous Prayers”. Prayers for the Holy Spirit to help me to hear, obey, and abide in His presence alone are the only safe place to be. They are prayers of safety for the believer. But dangerous to our enemy.
I’ve discovered a pretty good rule of thumb to operate in here lately. If I hear a fearful voice shouting that praying sincerely from my heart, “I want the Holy Spirit to lead me in every area of my life” is dangerous because… “What will God make you do…” Then DUH… PRAY IT! That’s just another “Dangerous Prayer” that needs to be prayed. Why would I not want to follow the only voice that promises to lead me in “Paths of Righteousness for His names sake” i.e., “Good paths/ Peaceful ones” the voice of the One who promises a “Future and a Hope” for me? So, when I hear the lying voice say, “Don’t pray that! That’s a Dangerous Prayer!” May my reply be, “Well thank you for the reminder I believe I will.”
“At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.” Daniel 4:34 NIV
The madness of King Nebuchadnezzar – Self centered/ the King restored- God centered. Daniel 4
Me Centered:
“God, I hate my mind!” – my prayer after another day drowning in anxiety. 8/31/2021
Emotions and feeling can take us on the wildest roller coaster rides of our minds. Sometimes the feeling goes beyond a little extra stress. Having lived with an anxiety disorder for years, I have felt like the crazy inside would never end. But I’ve had what I would call my “Nebuchadnezzar experience”. After raising my eyes toward heaven, my sanity has been restored.
I have known the torment of hideous nightmares, sleepless nights with my mind running 100 mph and no sign of stopping. I have known the fear of going to sleep because of not being to control what was going on around me while my eyes were closed and I slept. I’ve known what it is like to not be able to stay present in a situation. The whole Fight, Flight, Flee, or Freeze. I would freeze under extreme stress of fear. It was fairly unnoticeable unless you knew what you were looking for. Zoning out, feeling like you’re sinking into a tunnel inside your head, everything around you becomes just noise. Then there’s the tightness of your throat and chest that would go on for days. Before the meds- crying and not really sure why, after the meds- not crying a drop, numb. Going over and over and over again inside your head trying to make sense of the memories you would like to shut out, but can’t. I would have them hit when I was about to fall asleep and then feeling the tension of my shoulders as they tighten and I would find myself holding my breath like I was waiting for a shot to hit me.
All this going on while I have been a Christian- loved Jesus, a wife, homeschool mom, served on boards for different groups, lead ministries at my church, and tried to keep busy so it wouldn’t hit as much or I would hopefully forget. The problem is it would calm down on occasion, but all it took was a trigger and I would be back into the torment of my mind.
After 3 years of knowing me, my best friend suggested that I would go and see a counselor. So I did. I also began taking Prozac, which then had Hydroxizine added to it, then Buspar as the MG of Prozac grew too. I would make sure I took the pills as soon as I got out of bed and most days I couldn’t wait for my next dose in the evening. But after awhile, even the medicines weren’t working.
Four years of counseling… CBT- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, ACT- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, EMDR- Eye Movement Desensitization Reprogramming were some of the things I tried. There were things that definitely helped in some areas, but nothing stopped the anxiety. In fact, it seemed to get worse.
I tried doing everything the counselors I went to recommended. I began reading self-help book after self-help book trying to figure out how to get the feelings to stop. I tried the suggestion of “making room” for your anxiety. Imagining it being able to grow and not be resisted so that if I didn’t struggle it might stop. Then I tried Meditation. I downloaded the “HeadSpace” app. Which was started by a Buddhist Monk. I tried to blend their beliefs in with the Bible. Thinking that maybe I could make them fit and then justify my willingness to embrace things that went against what the Bible said. I wanted to believe that my problems had absolutely nothing to do with a spiritual world. That anxiety was my cross in life to bear/ thorn in my flesh/ in my DNA. That I might have the power within myself to fix myself If I tried to faithfully work through all the coping mechanisms that I was learning about that I had developed. I was starting to believe that the best I could do was to try to be my best me and live my out my truth, whatever that was and manage “my anxiety” (like it was my new lifelong pet). Then there was trying to let out pent up emotions as recommended to me, by getting alone in my car, finding the most angry/depressing music I could think of, usually Metalica or Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, then screaming as loudly as I could. Again, all this while attending church regularly, but not necessarily willingly (as time went on), also reading my Bible after trying to calm my mind by meditating. Every night ending with a tight throat and chest and not so restful sleep.
I tried everything I read and all that was recommended to me. Yet I was still drowning in anxiety and getting to the point that thoughts of suicide were entering my mind more frequently. I would find myself driving my Jeep and praying to God, begging Him to heal my mind and telling Him how much I hated my mind, then having my mind have this weird sensation and thinking, “I have to stay present! I see a red stop sign. White car, my steering wheel is black. I feel it’s rough yet smooth touch. My seat feels like fabric. I smell…”. “The 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 method” for grounding, all this while driving. My mind was tortured and there seemed to be no end on the horizon.
Jesus Centered:
Finally, I had to come to the end of myself. I found myself sitting in a counseling session talking about the past and these words rolled off my tongue, “If there really are any demons…” In searching to figure out “my truth” (as is a common theme in today’s culture), I had started to doubt “God’s truth”. When the words came out, I immediately thought, “I am in trouble. Am I going to Believe Jesus, the Bible, what my whole life had been built around since childhood, or am I going to turn away? God HELP me I am in trouble, and I can’t get out of this.”
W.O.W.’s illustration of the characteristics of Wilderness Living
In January of 2021, I had started attending a Bible study in our area called W.O.W. (Women on Wednesdays). One of the sessions talked about how as Christians we choose to wander in the Wilderness, following after fleshly things and this will leave you empty and unfulfilled. Sins were specifically mentioned, among them was “Anxiety”. This offended me. My mind ran like a hamster on a wheel uncontrollably, how could they say that struggle was a sin, something I chose to live in? But for some reason, I knew I needed whatever they had, so I kept going until the Spring session was over. Then, during the summer, I felt like I needed to get to know these people who were saying this, so I would not struggle with anxiety about going to the Bible study so much. I texted one of the leaders and offered to just help- set up or tear down, nothing more. You would have thought that I had shaken a jar of yellow jackets and set them loose inside my chest. I couldn’t do it, not even help. So, I texted her back, and told her that I was rushing things, it would be better for me to just attend for a while. I was too anxious to help even just a little. She urged me to pray about that and not make any quick decisions. I told her, “I struggle with anxiety, but I will pray.” God helped me to say that I would serve as a door greeter. If you knew my history of serving in church, this should be a piece of cake. (I like people, most of them ha ha) But it wasn’t. Not because I didn’t want to tell women “Good morning” when they arrived. It was because, just walking in the building was hard for me. I would arrive in the morning, on time, and sit there for a few minutes in my Jeep, asking myself, “Why did you say you would do this? Now you have to come all the time… They don’t like you. You’re a bother…” the session of lies would go on and on, then I would think, “I have to go in.” and I would make myself get out of my Jeep and walk into the church. After a while of being there, I would somewhat calm down, but the struggle went on and on. I would occasionally mention the anxiety I suffered with to the leader I was kind of getting to know. She mentioned the Co-founder of the organization had struggled with Anxiety and that she might be good to talk to. She was the one who mentioned Anxiety being a part of the wilderness experience the semester I attended before, it intimidated me to talk to her about it, but I was desperate. So, I texted her and asked her if I could talk to her about anxiety. She made time and we talked. It was then that she told me I was going to have to fight. That I could be free. That I was believing lies. That I had lost my first love, my passion for knowing Jesus. Everything she said hit home. She gave me a paper and told me to take it home and write out what I want, what I want with my relationship with Jesus, my life to be, etc. I took it home that afternoon and this is what I wrote:
“This is what I want… to walk in freedom from anxiety, but more than that I want to be close to Jesus. I want to drop the Buspar- Pop my eyes to you Jesus instead of pop a pill. I want for the very things that the enemy intends to tear me away from Jesus to be the very things that cause me to run to Jesus and my response to be one who falls at His feet close to HIm. I want Peace. I want You to be my peace…”
The Demoniac of Gardenes “When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind…” Mark 5:15 NIV An Encounter with Jesus leaves a tormented man free and in his right mind. It was nothing he did. It was ALL Jesus!
This is the beginning of freedom. I’m not sure of the timing but shortly after I wrote that, I woke up one morning with the words, “Anxiety is not a part of my inheritance. I do not have walk in anxiety anymore.” running through my head. The whole day when anxiety would come to me, I would say, “NOPE, you are not my inheritance. My inheritance is peace, love, joy, patience, kindness in Jesus.” One day would go by… Not too bad of a struggle, two days, three days, etc. Then I woke up one morning and thought. You don’t need the Buspar. Skip the morning dose. Did that for a week, felt good. Skip the evening dose. Did that for a week, felt good. I think I’ll drop them both. Quit the Buspar. Thank you, Jesus! Feeling less and less numb inside. Then, I started to believe that I can be free from the Prozac. I talked to my doctor and told her I was feeling better, and I wanted to go off it. She was all for it. Drop 10 mg. A much slower tapering off, 10 mg at a time, for weeks and weeks until I am finally Free! And feeling Soooo much better!!
Now when Anxiety comes to rattle my cage, I have a battle plan: I pray. I pop my eyes to Jesus. Speaking who God is and how He is worthy of praise. Worship music. Quoting Psalm 18. If it’s real strong, engage my praying friends. I’ve not lived in this kind of peace ever. God has set me free!
I have not needed the oftentimes-weekly counseling sessions I was going to for 6 months. Spending time in Bible Study and Prayer has been more than enough. Praying with my husband if I’m struggling and having friends pray have helped so much.
Do I battle? Yes, Satan knows where to hit me at, but God has shown me how to let Him hit back. It’s not by anything I do. It’s by me Looking to Jesus. Calling to Him for help. Thinking about How GOOD He is. Doing this over and over and over and then it Goes!
W.O.W. ‘S illustration of Kingdom Living
All the ME Centered living: my effort, my wants, my plans, my truth, etc. Only led me further and further away from peace and further and further into a pit. Repentance, and running to Jesus, hiding away in Him, relying totally on Him, trusting Him, surrendering to Him by submittance and obedience. It is the only thing that works because it is how He designed me to live. It is the only way out of the wilderness living to the abundance of Jesus’ Kingdom living.
The song “Too good to Not Believe” has a line in it that brings tears to my eyes on occasion. “Cause I’ve seen real life resurrection. I’ve seen mental health restored. Don’t you tell me He can’t do it… I believe You’re the Wonderworking God… The miracles I’ve seen. You’re too Good to not believe.”
“Cause I’ve seen real life resurrection I’ve seen mental health restored Don’t you tell me He can’t do it!”
God truly is too good to not believe! He can do anything. A little over a year ago, I was struggling to believe that there was any way to get free from the anxiety inside of me. Fear of needing to take more meds, try more self-help techniques and knowing what I had already done was not cutting it shouted its lies to me over and over. But Jesus heard my cries for help, and He came to my rescue! If you only knew the difference I feel, you would see, God is “Too Good to Not Believe”.
The Tea- “Gossip or personal information belonging to someone else; the scoop, the news …” -Urban Dictionary
Conversations with my 21-year-old daughter tend to prove to me just how old I am getting:
Faith: “Here’s the tea Mom…”
ME: “The what?”
Faith: “The tea… Gosh MOM! The tea, It means, the scoop on, what’s up with so and so, the…” and on and on…
My mind goes to “I am getting old.” But I assure you the next conversation I was asking, “What’s the tea on…?”
“The Tea” that was probably started due to tea parties or teatime where people sat together and talked about other people and all kinds of subjects.
It’s taken me awhile, but I am learning. We need to be careful of what voices we allow ourselves to listen to. This morning my Bible reading was in John 10. Jesus is describing the Good Shepherd and His relationship with His sheep. One thing that has been sticking out to me more and more lately is how the sheep know the Good Shepherd’s voice, and how they listen to it. They won’t follow another voice. In John 3:5 Jesus says, ” they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” It occurred to me that not only do I not run away at times, there are times I sit down and have a regular old “Tea Party with Satan” where I listen to him fill me “Spill the tea” on others around me with accusations and assumptions. Or I listen to him give me “the tea” on myself: What I am, What I am not, what I’ve done or did not do. He is a very chatty “Tea Party” host if I allow him to be. Unfortunately, I had been attending Tea Parties with him, frequently. Here is where I make a very bold statement… I’m pretty sure the source of much of the anxiety and depression I have suffered is my frequent attendance to “ALL DAY LONG Tea Parties with Satan.” That he throws. He pulls out a chair, whispers a juicy lie, and offers me a seat to a morning, noon, and night, sometimes all night Spilling of the Tea. It usually starts with, “You know you are not enough for X,Y,Z you face.” “You know so and so doesn’t really like you, they tolerate you…” “You know, If your friends only knew this and such about you…” On and on and on…If I accept his invitation, and sit down for a listen, I find myself drowning in all the fear, anxiety, anger, jealousy, etc. That he wants me to be overcome with. His Tea Party is a success.
Jesus said, “His Sheep run away from a strangers voice.” This has been resounding in my soul today. It is time to not only decline an initiation to Satan’s Tea Party, but to run. I must run away from his voice and run straight to Jesus’ voice. Jesus declares the truth. He declares the truth about who I am and who He and the Father are. His voice is there calling out. It truly is a question of “Who will I listen to?” and to “Who’s table will I run?” Jesus offers me a banqueting table, full of delights, that the Word says has “Banner of me of Love”. It is there that I find myself fulfilled, at peace, and with joy. But it requires that I decline my invitation to Teatime with Satan, that comes frequently throughout my day. And that I run from the tantalizing whisper of the lies he spews. Focusing instead on the feast of the truth and promises in God’s word regarding who He is and who I am. Positioning myself close to His heart. Where I can clearly hear Jesus. It is there that I am safe from the tea of anxiety and depression, and whatever other flavors of his deadly teas, Satan wants to serve.
Invitation to Teatime with Satan Declined!
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.” James 4:7-8
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say…?” Genesis 3:1 NIV
We all hear “voices”. Before you think I’ve jumped off the deep end, let me clarify that statement. We are surrounded/ bombarded by so many opinions, statements, ideas every day. These are the voices that shout at us from the moment our eyes open until we close them in sleep, and if we are lucky, they don’t come to us at night in our dreams as well… nightmares. These voices are liars. They want to get us off course from the only way to get them to shut up, the Peace found only in Jesus.
Yesterday, I was scrolling through Facebook, something I do way too much of… But I happened upon a post a friend had reposted of someone who is struggling with Anxiety. As I read it, it was like looking of a reflection of something I was a few months ago. Statements like: “I need a break from my mind itself which isn’t possible.” “My mind is traumatized my memory is foggy and absolutely full of triggers” “I am actually just busy trying to hold it together in my safe box.” Stuck out to me. I’ve been blogging for quite a while. This all started because writing has been an outlet for me, a stuffer of emotions… Anxiety has been one of the hot topics for my blog. I have several entries if you go back and look at the history of what I have written. It has been a lifelong struggle, but I would say the most intense battles have been the past 4 years. But God has worked a miracle in my life since around September/ October. It’s one of those kinds of miracles that it sometimes seems like it is too good to be true. You know, “pinch me” so I can make sure this is real kind of deals. With each passing day, I am convinced all the more of how real it is. I am walking free! So when I read the post like I saw yesterday, or I hear of someone who is struggling with anxiety, my heart aches. Because I know just how many voices I listened to and how many lies I believed.
Satan is deliberate in his onslaught of anxiety that he has unleashed in my generation and the generations after me. From the first twinge of it until you find yourself being squeezed to death by it, he has a purpose and a lie that is not new at all that is the root of all anxiety. “Did God really say…?” I believe anxiety is satan’s way of getting us to doubt God, His goodness, His provision, His Love. I would not be surprised if it is the very force driving the “deconstruction of Christian faith” movement we hear about frequently in the news. If anxiety is ruling in your head and your heart, doubts begin.
Deconstruction Christianity is a false religion. You cannot have Jesus and not have the truth of the Bible. There is no me making a “better version of myself”
Then begins all the futile attempts to “fix ourselves”. Believe me, I tried them. Self help books galore, Headspace meditation app- started by a Buddhist monk, trying new hobbies (not a bad thing as long as it isn’t a replacement for crying out to Jesus), numbing it all with medicine, etc. The truth of it all is “I CANNOT FIX MYSELF!!!” All my attempts to fix my anxiety, outside of getting my eyes off of me and onto Jesus, only served to dig me deeper into a pit, a very ugly pit… The truth in the lyrics of the Switchfoot song “Mess of Me” rings truer to me every day.
“I am my own affliction I am my own disease There ain’t no drug that they could sell Ah there ain’t no drugs to make me well There ain’t no drug It’s not enough There ain’t no drug The sickness is myself I made a mess of me I wanna get back the rest of me I’ve made a mess of me I wanna spend the rest of my life alive”
About a year ago, I made contact with an old friend from my college days. We began talking about some mutual experiences of abuse that opened us up to lies. One thing stuck out to me that she said in the beginning of our weekly conversations. “Janet, you have the Holy Spirit within you. You can hear the truth. You know the truth.” She had hit the nail on the head. I have been listening to WAY TOO MANY VOICES! (ME, a seasoned Christian of 39 years…”) Whether it was the lies of “what you have been will never change”, the lies of “You call yourself a Christian, yet you think these horrible things”, “try to find your ZEN”, “make a better version of yourself each day”, “the Bible does not hold the answer to what you are struggling with”, etc. Those voices only lead to one thing “DESTRUCTION”. Let me be so bold as to say that “Deconstruction of faith” is not a brave move. It is an opening to the very “destruction of ourselves”.
Here’s the deal. I cannot say do x,y,and z and you will find yourself free. I’m not 100% sure how I have ended up in this place of peace I am in today. The one thing I did do was I decided my listening to “too many voices” was not working. I needed to listen to ONE voice, JESUS. Tune yourself daily into that voice and refuse to allow even the hint of a whisper of the lying voice of anxiety to enter your ears. Let desperation for freedom cause you to RUN as hard as you can into your Heavenly Father’s arms. It is only there that refuge is found from all the voices that come against you. God is no respecter of persons, granting freedom to one and then not to another. If He has answered the cry for freedom that I uttered, He will answer you! He is just that Good!
The only WAY of Peace, Love and Wholeness- JESUS!!
Your Love 