anxiety

Lord God of Heaven’s Armies

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David , Ready for Battle

I have a son named David. When he was little we would read to him the Bible stories of David. He loved to hear how David wrestled a bear and killed a lion. My son would go through the house doing air motions of fighting the imaginary enemy at our door. In his mind, he was not only David our son but for that moment he was David who slew Goliath. Moms of boys can totally relate when a son puts on the superhero outfit or picks up a slingshot he is instantly transported to that battle and all enemies are defeated easily with one fail swoop. 

Victory!

As adults victory against the giants in our life may not come so easily. The battle is real. Satan does not want to wound us, he wants to kill and destroy us. Our heart aches from hurts and wounds inflicted during battle. This is even more true as we move from 2020 to 2021. The events of the past year and the effects of social isolation, unrest, anxiety, and fear have begun to take their toll. Many churches and individuals begin the new year with prayer and fasting. Typically this involves seeking God’s direction regarding whether to change jobs, buy a house, change a behavior, etc. It typically is a time of renewal and expectation. For 2021, your prayers for this year may have switched to addressing the deeper issues of faith, grief, loss, anxiety. We are not asking whether to buy a new house or car, but are asking “Where is God?” For many of us, as we face the upcoming year and what lies before us, we feel less like victorious David going into battle and more like wounded soldiers looking for a retreat. We need to be reminded where our hope and help and strength comes from. 

It is time to remember who Jesus is and who is fighting our battles. 

When David faced Goliath, Goliath taunted the Israelite army. He called them the armies of Saul. The Israelites became fearful. Why? Because they identified themselves as the armies of Saul. When David faced Goliath he did not see himself as a member of Saul’s army but rather as someone coming into battle with God’s full complement of the regiment. He was ready. 

1 Samuel 17:25 You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies-the God of the armies of Isreal whom you have defiled.

David’s identity was with God. He knew that victory would come not because he was good at using a slingshot, but because God is bigger than anything we face.  Victory would not come because he had battle training or any kind of talent or expertise. Victory would not come because he was a special person from the right family or social position. Victory would not come because of who is in political office. Victory would come because David had God’s army with him. Victory would come because of who God is.

David knew this because he had a relationship with God. He knew who God was and what He had done. He had spent days praying and singing praises to God as he watched the sheep. Today, along with prayer, we have the Bible to learn who God is. I am reminded even more how it is important to pray and read the Bible daily. Romans 8 reminds us that tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, peril, sword, life, death, principalities, things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing are able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It doesn’t say that these things will not come and try to separate us because they will. It says that they are NOT ABLE to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The battle is real, so be purposeful. Find a ‘Battle Plan’ for what you are facing. Discover who Jesus is. Discover who is on your side. Remind yourself that no matter how bad the battle is, nothing can separate us from Jesus. 

2 Samuel 5:10 And he became more powerful because the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies was with him.

In 2 Samuel 6, David several times refers to God as the Lord Almighty. The word “Almighty” comes from a Hebrew word that means “hosts, organized army for war or battle. ” This army is organized and ready for the war campaign to begin. Their commander is God himself.

So, as we enter the New Year and are praying and fasting, remember who goes before you. 

Battle Plan Ideas

Here are some suggestions for Battle Plans:

  1. Make a list of scriptures that pertain to what you are praying about. Sites such as You Version and Blue Letter Bible are a good resource for this. You can type in the topic and they will give you a list of scriptures with that word in it. Here are the links:
  2. Daily Bible reading plans and devotionals can be found on websites and Apps. I like the You Version and the Bible Project.
  3. Many churches are praying and fasting for the New Year and have scriptures listed on their sites as well. World Outreach Church has one called the “Battle Plan”, for example. There are many others as well.
  4. There are also books, such as Prayers that Avail Much or the Power of a Praying Mom by Stormie Omartian. You may have a favorite already.
  5. If you like to journal, I suggest creating a prayer journal. You can use a journal notebook or there are Prayer Journals with specific sections already there for you to comment on. Pick one that inspires you. A missionary nurse friend of mine gave me these: Daily Gratitude Journal with Bible Verses and the Prayer Map for Women.
  6. There are Bibles with sections for journaling and prayer. Personal comments in the margins are good reminders of how Jesus has been there for you. My other son, Nathan, gave me this one for my birthday. My creative side is loving it! the NIV Journal the Word Bible. There are lots others to choose from.
  7. The names of Jesus. I am always encouraged when I review the names of Jesus. It reminds me of His character and who is on my side. Tony Evans wrote a book, Praying Through the Names of God. Ann Spangler wrote a book entitled Praying the Names of God: a Daily Guide. There are others. Remember we need to know who our God is that goes before us.
  8. On this blog, I have past posts regarding prayer, praise, and the full armor of God. I pray these will encourage and inspire you as well.

What is your Battle Plan? Share with your fellow warriors.

Is your jello sticking to the wall yet? Psalm 32:8 Part 1: Instruct

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Are you adding your own nails to make i
stick? How is that working for you?

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. ” — Psalm 32:8 (NASB)

Do you feel like you are trying everything and nothing is working right? Are you like me and you want to know where to go next, what to do? Am I on the right path? These days we have Google Maps to talk to us and to say turn right or left in 1.1 miles. But what about our life? Are you throwing jello against the wall to see what sticks? Are you adding your own nails to make it stick? How is that working for you? Are you are going in all directions, picking up everything you can, to see what works. Is the stress relieved, has peace and joy returned? Don’t you wish you had someone to tell you in 1.1 miles decide to do this or not to do it? Psalm 32 tells us that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit will do just that.

Psalm 32 reminds that God will instruct, teach, and counsel us.

Instruct means to provide understanding, insight, show what to pay attention to, show what you need to focus your mind on. The instructor is passing on his wisdom, knowledge, expertise, skill in order for the person to be successful in what they are doing. The concept of the expert instructing the apprentice is illustrated here. The expert imparts not only knowledge, but skill and wisdom. It denotes the concept of the instructor being circumspect or seeing everything in all directions and being able to tell you what you need to highlight and/or give attention to. The one instructed will become wise, prudent, skillful, have incite regarding the situations, and be able to discern what to do and when to do it, This wisdom and knowledge is not from the person but is a result of the instruction.

Do you feel like you are flying blind? Have you gotten somewhere and don’t know how to land?

Have you ever put something together and ended up with ‘spare’ parts(scary!)? Or tried to skip some of the instruction steps in a Lego build only to have take it a part and backtrack to where you went off on your own? Do you feel like you are flying blind? Have gotten somewhere and don’t know how to land? Now I know sometimes we try to ‘shortcut’ the directions. But what usually happens is we have parts left over or we reach a point where we need to redo to make the parts fit properly. Either way, we have wasted time and energy. The finished product may not work the best or worse yet, not work at all. I usually end up with frustration, stress, disappointment, anger (lot of negative thoughts!). When someone instructs us it is like reading the directions. If only I had followed the directions. If only I had humbled myself to receive instruction.

“But when the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.” — Proverbs 21:11 (NASB)

The word ‘wise’ is the same word for ‘instruct’ used in Psalm 32. It is a verb, “sakal”, which means there is ‘action’ required. There is also a link to the person doing the instruction and the one receiving instruction. There has to be a relationship. God knows just how to instruct us, but we need to be willing to be instructed. God is the only one with complete circumspection of our life. Without His instruction we are throwing the jello against the wall. Without God’s instructions we tend to focus in all directions, with no purpose. We lack understanding and knowledge of what is going on in our life and why things are happening to us. All our efforts are in vain. We may feel like our thoughts are overwhelming us to the point we cannot “think clearly’. Without clear instruction, energy is spent to keep the ‘plates spinning’ in our life with no victory in sight. We tend have the same dramas repeated over and over in our life.

“When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.”– Psalm 32:3 (NASB)

The result was forgiveness, preservation and
deliverance. God’s living waters of forgiveness
could flow in his life.

David wrote Psalm 32. It is described as a ‘contemplative happy’ song. However, in the beginning David is not happy. David describes how sin was ‘heavy upon me’. The weight of the sin was draining his ‘vitality’. He describes his body as ‘wasting away’ . It wasn’t just because of sin, but because he ‘kept silent’ (Psalm 32:3) If you keep sin silent and hidden, it will devour you physically, mentally, and emotionally. David describes how blessed and fortunate he was when he did not keep his sin hidden, but acknowledged it to God. (Psalm 32: 5). The result was forgiveness, preservation, and deliverance. God’s living waters of forgiveness could flow in his life. This forgiveness opened the doorway of David’s heart and soul to be instructed by God and the Holy Spirit.

Sin made it so that David could not hear, understand, and obey God’s clear instructions. The relationship was blocked. The same is true of us today. When we have sin that we have not confessed we cannot hear God’s voice clearly. We are numb to the gentle promptings of the Holy Spirit leading and guiding us to Jesus Christ. We cannot hear instructions clearly. We read the Bible and lack understanding.

God sees what we are facing in all directions in our life and He knows what is ahead of us. God created us and knows our talents, strengths and weaknesses. He knows how to instruct us. The Holy Spirit is leading and guiding us to Jesus and His forgiveness. When we confess our sins and ask for the forgiveness that Jesus Christ provided for us through His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, the relationship is fully restored. The sin that was blocking the flow of God’s instructions in our hearts and minds is removed. The relationship between the instructor and the apprentice is restored. Jesus becomes not just our savior, but the Lord of our life. The word of God, the Bible, becomes our blue print, our instructions, that we can understand and receive in our hearts and mind.

Where are you looking for instructions regarding your life? Who is instructing you? Do you have ‘hidden’ sin that is blocking your relationship with Jesus?

Prayer:

Dear Jesus

I acknowledge my sin (___________________) to you. I acknowledge my immoral thoughts and actions. I confess my transgressions. I confess that my heart has rebelled against you and your Word. I ask for forgiveness of my sins. I ask for you to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9). I accept the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the cross to cleanse me from sin. I desire Lord Jesus to have my relationship with you restored. Holy Spirit please guide me in the instructions of God’s word. Bring to my remembrance all that God’ has instructed. (John 14:26) I pray that my heart and spirit will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit guidance and conviction of anything that is hindering my relationship with Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 1:5) Amen

Resurrection Egg #7: Crown of Thorns

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 The Great Exchange: Victory in our Mind

I love this picture. It simply shows what God does. It is the Great Exchange (Resurrection Egg #3) He replaces something that is dead and ugly and painful with something new and beautiful. Jesus was given crown of thorns by man. Crowns typically signify royalty and authority. The thorns, however, did not signify either. Christ bled from the head so that we could have healing and peace of mind. He replaced the crown of thorns with a crown that gives us authority over the sinful fruit our mind; worry, anxiety, pride, depression, lust, greed. Jesus promises to replace the crown of thorns with a crown of life, a crown of glory that will not fade and an everlasting crown. Jesus’ crowns give us authority to have full access to His kingdom.

 

crown

Crown of Thorns: aka “PLANTZILLA”

The thorns were supposed to have been two inches long and when placed onto Jesus’ head they cut into His head as they encircled it. As a nurse, I have seen just how the smallest head wound can bleed, much less multiple lacerations that went deep into Jesus’ scalp. The blood would have poured down.

Thorns are considered fruit of branches. (UGLY!) They represent the curse of the earth. The Greek word for thorns that refers to the crown of thorns is the same word that descibed the thorns that choked out the word of God in the parable. If  you have ever had to kill  or remove a vine with thorns. First of all, those vines are insidious. Even with the harshest of weed killers, they seem to thrive and spread. They flourish as they wind themselves around bushes, trees, buildings, anything in their path. They eventually kill the plants they are covering. You can cut them back and they come back with a vengeance. At the beach in North Carolina we have such a vine. I have talked to several people regarding how to remove it and kill it. The only way is cut it back and spray weed killer every year until eventually you can find where the root is. Then you did up the root bulb ( which by the way can be the size of a soccer ball). This process can take 5-10 years to completely remove it. Then you are constantly spraying every year to keep it from returning. It is a very labor intensive process that takes patience and diligence. It is battle between you and PLANTZILLA! Just when you think you have it under control, it shows up on your back deck!

Battling PLANTZILLA

Well, through this battle with PLANTZILLA, God has taught me some things regarding battles of the mind.

  1. PLANTZILLA wants to cover you and strangle you so that you can’t see the sunlight. When our mind is bombarded with thoughts of “you are not worthy”, “what is the use”, “everything you touch is bad”, “you don’t deserve anything but this”, etc. Our mind is so shrouded we cannot see the light of the Word of God. The Word of God says that “We are fearfully and wonderfully made”, “God desires above all things that we prosper and be in good health even as our soul prospers”. People who are depressed talk about being in a ‘dark place’. Jesus wants to move us from that dark place into the light.
  2. PLANTZILLA likes to come back every year. We have sinful patterns in our life that like to repeat themselves. These patterns begin with our thought patterns. These thought patterns govern our actions which determine our results. Ever heard the definition on insanity (another ‘mind’ word). Well, it is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results. To get different results we need to replace the thought pattern. This comes from daily reading the word of God.
  3. PLANTZILLA has a root cause from which it springs. Ok, without God, we may be able to trim back PLANTZILLA and hold him at bay. We may be able to start listening to positive thoughts and positive people in our life and change what is going on around us. Which is good. But not great. The only way we will have complete victory is to remove the root bulb. That is going to take Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It will take prayer and fasting and getting into the Word of God. It will take sacrificing some time for ourself. It will take changing what goes into your mind. What are we reading? What are we watching everyday? It is choosing to listen to God’s voice and we will have victory.

 PLANTZILLA is now plantzilla!

Jesus gave us the power and authority to control our thoughts. We are no longer slaves to them. We are no longer a victim of sinful patterns in our life. Now we can capture every thought and replace them with the Word of God.  We now have the freedom to make right decisions. We have the ability to produce good fruit and not thorns in our life. We have peace of mind. 

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.                 ( 2 Corinthians 10: 3-6, KJV)

Resurrection Egg #7