Pretension

P 3309 Anxiety.

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Charles F Stanley wrote the following. I hope it is helpful: “Anxiety is a problem we all will deal with at one time or another. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “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? 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?”(Matt. 6:25-26)

The Greek word for “anxious” in this passage means “distracted.” It’s a word that refers to uncertainty. That’s what anxiety produces in us. It gives us a feeling of, what’s next? It’s a feeling that the rug has been pulled out from underneath us and we have no idea if we’re going to fall, how hard, in what direction, or onto what.

The word “anxious” is also translated as “worry” in the Bible. For many people, worry has become a way of life. If that describes you, I encourage you to read again the words of Jesus. His words are not a suggestion—they’re a command. You may say,“I can’t help feeling anxious, I’ve always been a worrier.”I’ve heard that from many people through the years. My response is, “Yes you can.”

There’s nothing about a circumstance that automatically creates anxiety. Anxiety occurs because of the way we respond to a problem or troubling situation.Your ability to choose is part of God’s gift of free will to every human being. You can choose how you feel. You can choose what you think about, and you can choose how you will respond to a circumstance. It certainly isn’t God’s purpose for you to feel anxious—He doesn’t allow situations in your life so you’ll have anxiety. 

The Father may allow a situation in your life to develop stronger faith, grow and mature, or change a bad habit or negative attitude. But God doesn’t set you up for anxiety. He’s always at work to bring you to a place where you’ll trust Him more, obey Him more fully, and receive more of His blessings.

You can fall into a downward spiral of anxiety, or you can say: “Father, I bring this to You. It’s beyond my control. I feel helpless in this situation, but You have the power to change what I’m facing. You love me perfectly, and I’m trusting You to handle what concerns me in the way You see fit. I know whatever You’ve planned for me is for my good. I look forward to seeing the way You choose to express Your love, wisdom, and power.” Amen. Friend, this is the way of peace—the road out of anxiety and worry.” 

Back to my little bit for today! I think this is the stuff that haunts most people. I put these thoughts by Charles F Stanley on my blog today because so many people are under siege from the things he talks about. His writing is clear and concise and he said it a whole lot better than I can! My motivation is this:  whatever it takes to help someone else get free is useful!  

This mini-sermon was particularly helpful to me, because we are preparing to put far too many things inside our car and even more stuff on top of it!— And still fit us, in it! Plus we will end up talking to a whole bunch of strangers. All this happens as we are travelling over 3,600 kms in the middle of a petrol shortage with prices through the roof. Some generous people have already helped us out financially with the extra burden of the cost of petrol. But my point is this: hubby and I are not exempt from anxiety either, it’s an ongoing battle for all of us.

I do have one helpful hint that works for me. If anxiety and worry start to build and I end up mentally knitting, I phone a friend or text someone. I don’t always tell them the problem, I simply ask them to pray. God knows what I am concerned about. I can fall into worse trouble when I talk about the difficult stuff, it actually kind of magnifies the problem in my mind. I might end up looking for sympathy instead of explaining that I simply need to hold fast. I have to pick my battles. Sometimes there are some things I can’t solve, but I can pray.

I’ve learnt that as I relinquish my anxiety about the things that bother me, I am far more open to His passions than my own. It’s not hard to love a God who values human beings so much, that He died for them. I think anxiety is a bit like a snowball rolling down a steep hill, it gathers momentum as it rolls on, and on. You can’t stand in front of it, it will squash you flat! The important bit is to know where and when that snowball begins in your life, so you can stop it at the top and jump all over it to disperse the thoughts.

The bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 …  “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  Anxiety is our enemy’s lies on steroids.  We can pay attention to the incessant ugly noise or give our attention to the One who lives inside us. Yes, it is a battle, many, many times – but Mr Stanley offers great advice, I intend to take it. Bye 👋.

P 3290 Choose your weapons.

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 10:3-5  “For though we live in the world, WE DO NOT WAGE WAR AS THE WORLD DOES. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  This scripture always evokes the same thought in me, ‘so why on earth are WE acting like everyone else does?’ Like brother James says: “this ought not to be so…”

We quite simply can’t use this world’s weapons in our daily ongoing battles that we fight. Let’s always remember we aren’t fighting people – we are fighting those things, spiritual forces, that people have embraced to protect themselves and often they are deceived. BTW, this immediately makes me wonder why we think talking aboutstuff will fix it!  2 Corinthians tells us His Word is meant to demolish arguments and pretensions. We definitely need to know what that looks like. To me: it looks like knowing God is always good. Plus we live this life knowing our side WON … but sometimes, we have momentary afflictions. However, our Saviour and our Comforter will never leave us. 

We need DIVINE weapons. The armour of God, the fruit of the Spirit, plus His Wisdom and spiritual gifts to combat whatever comes at us. Let’s look at that statement for a minute  …  because our weapons are divine, then they are weapons from the Lord. So our next question is – what do they look like? Do some research in Ephesians 4&6, or 1 Corinthians 12&13, or Romans 12. But let’s start with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control those are Jesus’ kind of weapons. I recommend using them liberally under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Start by showing the Lord you love Him … by LOVING AND OBEYING HIS WORD.

Here’s something that could raise your hair and your eyebrows! Almighty God used the weapon of His own Son’s obedient death, to defeat sin and death. We don’t use normal weapons, we don’t have to … HE WON! Hmmm. Those particular weapons don’t look like the stuff you buy in your local gun-shop. You will probably hardly ever see a bible lying side by side with a gun. Why not? Be-ca-use … Jesus said: “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. We simply can’t get to abundant life using carnal weapons! Those things diminish and destroy it. Carnal weapons are motivated by “look after me and mine.” Abundant life is motivated by “what did Jesus say?” 

Prayer is another one of God’s most potent weapons. It takes you and I out of the equation, and puts the Holy Spirit in charge. Ain’t nobody out there that wants to mess with Him! He made the world and everything in it!  Do that stuff at your own peril. The Spirit of God will love us and help us, until we feel so-oo-oo full, we will wonder why any of us went the wrong way in the first place! This is why Jesus said: “Love your enemies!”  He inhabits that kind of outwardly looking passion. Jesus has passionate eyes of fire in the book of Revelation.

Love will set captives free, and do even more things that we haven’t personally discovered, yet.  When it is carefully uncovered and digested, loving people is a revelation of Universal proportions and a weapon of mass destruction! It destroys the work of the evil one. If we try to use our own love, we will probably run out fairly quickly and come up short. But God’s love is endless. It is shameless in its passion. It smashes any stronghold of unbelief, fear, mortification, spite, anger etc. and restores and heals everything it touches. This is why love is the best weapon ever – it simply can’t be defeated. You can stuff love into a tomb, and 3 days later it will come bursting out, destroying every one of your theories and theologies!                                                                     

We need to cultivate love in even the smallest things, because it doesn’t come naturally to us. We are far more used to self-preservation. We often end up using our tongues like swords and knives and cut people up into little bits because they have somehow threatened us “…These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts]. James 3:10 sure has a handle on humanity and the way it thinks and acts!

Let’s choose our weapons carefully – we can’t possibly live this new life well, unless the Holy Spirit helps us. He is pure love in action. And He can love both sides!  We need His weapons that cut people free, not maim them.  I think we should always start by applying love first. When love is uppermost, there is no room for hatred.   Learning to love others transforms our minds. Bye 👋

P 2629 Going from reading into transformation.

/ DVH

“He has rescued us completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom realm of His beloved Son. For in the Son all our sins are canceled and we have the release of redemption through His very blood.” Colossians 1:13-14 TPT.

Lemme ask a curly question … if we need rescuing, and SomeBody has already done it …then what keeps going wrong?? This is the bit most of us get stuck on – mainly because we often don’t feel any different. Especially if we have been provoked by other people or circumstances. The change we need to make, is about the way we treat the Lord and other people, despite our circumstances— even when under pressure. I’m not talking about hiding the fact that painful, hard things things exist, I’m talking about finding out what the Lord says about any particular situation, and walking through them His Way.

Our finite brains are not the most reliable guides, especially if there is a barrel load of feelings tied to some thoughts! In the academic world E = mc². That’s called knowledge. Hilariously I had to ask hubby if I remembered that formula correctly because I learnt it like, 60 years ago! I also have learnt, from experience, that my knowledge has become faulty over time. So, what if I embark upon a new way to live and I exchange my old thoughts and reactions, FOR WHAT GOD HAS SAID? That’s when I enter what Christ has already given me – His kingdom. We must move on from the concepts into the reality of living HIS way.

If I replace what I’ve learnt, or what I think I know with scripture, plus relevant matching actions, then over time that means I will automatically start to reference things that float through my head, by what HE SAID in the book. I believe that’s what this scripture means:  “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2. By doing we end up testing out God’s will for ourselves. 

Here’s another verse:  “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5. WE do it. He will help us but we do it! We refuse to entertain anything that contradicts what He has already told us in Person, through His word. Here’s yet another from Isaiah 26:3:“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” This is the kind of “work” we are engaged in now. We become vigilant to any thoughts that are contrary to the revealed will of God in the book. We live now to please Him. Here’s my last verse that explains this ongoing battle: Romans 7:23:“But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”

My body and its functions have a memory. For instance, when I think about some food, I can remember its taste. In some circumstances, I might remember fear, danger or disappointment. Those things can rule, cloud, and limit my faith if I am not prepared to put aside what I think I already know, in favour of what God has already said. The important bit is to wait upon God and find OUT what He says! We don’t just need to hear a Voice, we need to have what we hear validated by what we are reading, or have read in the bible previously. 

satan taunts us. he tells us we can’t be different because – we are still feeling, reacting, and responding the same way we always did. Feelings aren’t FAITH. We need to learn to defer to God’s opinion, not our own, and that will take time, patience and persistence. When we don’t act on what we believe, we are undermining the very thing God gave us for transformation – living faith. True faith has evidence – it has actions that match up with our belief system.  We are going to have to actively restore the balance we will need in this new life of faith … by knowing what God says even more than the data we’ve been collecting and collating all our lives. Then we go on to choose to ACT the way the bible says.

Jesus did everything that needed to be done to set us free at Calvary. Now we faithfully and progressively change our minds to think the way He thought. This means we don’t have to be ruled by our appetites and fears etc. anymore – we’ve moved away from our old location of fear etc. into a new place. We’ve been born into a new kingdom and it has a new way to live. Like that scripture above in Colossians says, we no longer have to live the way we used to. 

SomeBody paid our debt — and now we must clear out the closets of our old way of thinking and replace those things with Godly thinking. SomeBody – the Lord Jesus Christ! – freely gave us the power to go from reading the bible into doing what it says = transformation. Now we need to go out and act on what we read. Dying to self means we refuse to be led about by our appetites and needs, instead we live to serve and obey what our King says. Bye. 👋

P 2603 Some thoughts are not welcome!

/ DVH

Some thoughts are definitely not welcome, they are not worth our time, or even losing sleep over! Here are some great scriptures. Matthew 9:4 “Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?” Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

I am sure you already know these scriptures — but today I want to briefly talk about taking them seriously and acting on them. We would not ask an unreformed, repeat-offender, serial killer to stay at our house and babysit our kids! That would be, like … insane!! Yet, in our minds, there are times when we entertain all kinds of bad and poor thinking habits… and we kid ourselves that those thoughts don’t matter. Entertaining dumb thoughts is like nailing one foot to the ground — we will go round and round and round – and get nowhere. Because those thoughts will eventually take us CAPTIVE.

Whatever we have meditated on in our heads will come out of our mouths. ‘As a man thinks so is he.’ If all you can think about is how mad you are at someone else, then that stuff will leak out… somewhere. It’s like a forest fire, give those thoughts enough kindling and we end up with a blaze nobody can control!! Let’s look at this a bit to clarify the subject. 

Before anything happens it starts as a thought. My advice is to do spot checks on your thoughts and begin to decide, for yourself, which ones aren’t worth a welcome mat, because they are not helpful. Otherwise, what we often end up doing is this:  we will beat ourselves up for having some rotten thought – and satan probably ran by and threw the thought at us in the first place. However! he is delighted to add fuel to that kind of fire. In the end we can get so busy concentrating on what we think we are not… WE FORGET WHO WE ARE NOW!

Blaming yourself produces nothing but shame. Shame produces hiding. Hiding produces avoidance of the truth instead of application. Stop the production line!  Simply agree with the bible and apply it to your life. Act on it. Truth becomes stronger when you stand on it in faith – no matter how you feel. You know, Almighty God doesn’t say ‘always get it right‘ – He says use your faith! God loves YOU and I unconditionally. As we walk with Him, we need to grow used to living in His unconditional love for us. That’s how we will grow His fruit. Acting on our faith, not our feelings.

Try to look at the bible as helpful hints, and don’t allow a bad thought to stay long enough to become an obsession or an action. There’s a very old saying:  ‘You can’t stop the birds of the air from flying overhead, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair!’  When Paul tells us: ‘“let your mind dwell on these things.” He is talking about the things that help us: “whatever is good right and profitable.” Beating yourself up for doing something dumb IS NOT PROFITABLE. All you will learn is punishment, not LOVE. Repent, repair, and then – move on! Teach yourself to discern what is not profitable by digesting the book. Digestion follows doing.

The time to take the next step is often when we least feel like it, but we can learn through the Lord’s processes that our feelings run dead last in a kingdom mentality. God isn’t saying we need thought police, instead He is telling us what sort of things are helpful to think about and warning us what to stay away from!  Do you have family or friends? Start thanking God for them. Even if some of those things are broken – just transfer your thoughts away from what’s wrong about them, to what He says is right. It’s a skill, just like brushing your teeth… we all can learn it.

We can feed our minds good things to think about by reading His book regularly. Read the bible until you get happy that you started reading it! Look for how much He loves you. Instead of seeing the bible as things I can’t possibly do, read it to find out what Jesus wants to say to me, TODAY. If He is pointing out something that needs changing, thank Him. “For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.” Hebrews 12:6. Don’t get stuck on the discipline part, firmly plant yourself on the fact that our God loves us enough to discipline us. That verse tells us that correcting us is His Way of showing us His love.

God is on our side and He does not stand afar off, instead, He’s closer to us than our heartbeat. The Body of Christ has forgotten who we are – we are His kingdom in action – we are the people who know that going the wrong way starts in our thoughts. Tell the things that push and shout at you, and demand to be entertained – they are not welcome. Put out the welcome mat for the things that remind you how much He loves you. 👋