Keep Your Soul From Trouble

About 5 years ago, while laying in bed trying to fall asleep, this random thought came loudly and with authority—literally taking my breath away—seizing me in panic!

“You are going to die young!”

For days I walked in a stupor.  I had no idea what to make of it, nor what to do with it.

This was before I learned to practice the teaching from scripture, “resist {rebuke} the devil and he will flee from you”.  This was also before I fully understood that Satan feeds thoughts into our minds. 

For a long time, I wondered if it had been God speaking.  Was He warning me I had little time?  Why would He say it in such a way to invoke all kinds of fear?  Was it God or me or my enemy taking advantage of me?  I have since worked through that event and found peace. 

And then when I read this devotional entry* for September 22^nd I about leapt off the couch!

“He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles.”  Proverbs 21:23

Many people have trouble in their soul, which includes the mind, will, and emotions.  But God gives the answer right here.

We’ve all dealt with doubts and fears at one time or another.  Fear often starts as a single thought.  As we dwell on that thought, it produces fear.  And if we continue to dwell on fearful thoughts, fear escalates into panic.

The devil likes to attack your mind with fearful thoughts.  He may say, I’m going to kill you.  You won’t live out your full life.  You’ll get cancer and die.  Most of the time there’s no basis at all for what the enemy is saying to your mind.  He doesn’t care.  He just wants you to dwell on his evil suggestions long enough for fear to take over.

I finally realized demonic thoughts come to our minds because the devil isn’t big enough to pull off his schemes on his own.  He’s trying to convince us to agree with him so he can operate in our lives.

Cast down the enemy’s thoughts the second they come.  How do you stop his thoughts?  Well, you can’t think one thing while you’re saying something else.  So open your mouth and start confessing, “Glory to God!  God sent His Word and healed me and satisfies me with long life.  It’s so good to be well!”

When you start speaking God’s Word, thoughts stop and fear leaves.  That will keep your soul from trouble.

Confession:

I refuse to allow fear and doubt to control me.

I keep my soul from trouble by speaking God’s Word.

I live a long, healthy life, and God will fulfill the number of my days.

{marks of emphasis are my own}

What fear is paralyzing you?

Has a random thought ever entered your mind causing fear, doubt, anger or confusion?

Are you consciously taking your thoughts captive to Christ?

Once a thought is thought over, entertained and spoken it has taken us captive—for good or for evil.  This is how Satan begins the establishment of a stronghold {foothold} in our lives. 

Be careful to not passively receive any thought that pops into your mind!

Get active with your thoughts! 

Take them over before they take over you!

* Mark Brazee; 365 Days of Healing; page 271.

Lessons From a Tea Bag

When we take a tea bag, place it in a teacup, and fill the cup with hot water, the water activates the tea in the bag, unleashing its taste into the water around it.

The hot water didn't create the taste; it merely revealed, or drew out, what was already in the bag.

This depicts what happens in the human heart. The pressures around us (the unfavorable circumstances, the temptations, and the commands of God to love Him and our neighbor) merely draw out of our heart what is already in it.


We cannot blame the hot water for the taste in the cup. The contents of the tea bag determine the flavor of the tea. If we don't like the particular taste, we need to put into the water a bag containing a different kind of tea.


Similarly, we cannot shift the blame for any bitterness, anger, despair, deception, cruelty, and so forth that we display when we are under pressure. The pressures merely expose how unlike Christ we really are.

{From Changed Into His Image, pg 4, by Jim Berg. Tea bag illustration adapted from J. Allan Petersen, Your Reactions Are Showing, pg 14-15}

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Silver Refining

Malachi 3:3 says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.”

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.  That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work.  She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up.  He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot then she thought again about the verse that says: “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.”  She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire.  If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

God sees it necessary to put His children into the furnace; but His eye is steadily intent on the work of purifying, and His wisdom and love are both engaged in the best manner for us. Our trials do not come at random, and He will not let us be tested beyond what we can endure.

The woman was silent for a moment.  Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”  He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy—when I see my image in it.”

 ~source unknown~

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Living Eternally — Francis Chan

These 4 minutes could impact your thinking . . .

FOREVER!

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Prayer as a Way of Walking in Love: A Personal Journey

"Pastor John gave me the topic of prayer as a personal journey. In my life, prayer has even rivaled the Scriptures in stirring my affections towards God." ~Francis Chan's message from the 2011 Conference for Pastors~

This is somewhat long, but well worth listening to!

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Don't Coast Through Life Without a Passion

Desire that your life count for something great!
Long for your life to have eternal significance.
WANT THIS!
Don't coast through life without a passion!

From Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper

It's one thing to have passion

It's another to demonstrate it

By DISCIPLINING YOURSELF

To make that passion a reality!

~Personal note to self!~

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Ah, Lord our God,

if Thou art so lovely in Thy creatures,

how exceedingly beautiful and

ravishing Thou must be in Thyself!

~Henry Suso~

Faith is not believing that God can,

but that God will.

~Abraham Lincoln~

Intense love does not measure—

It just gives.

~Mother Teresa~

Nothing taken for granted; 

everything received with gratitude; 

everything passed on with grace.

~G. K. Chesterton~

Begin by thanking Him

for some little thing, 

and then go on,

day by day,

adding to your subjects of praise

until you see in everything

some cause for thanksgiving.

~Priscilla Maurice~

Where there is true prayer, there is purity

Where there is prayer and purity, there is power

Where there is power, there is praise!

~Pastor David Rodes~

"When we consider our own virtues, 

we become proud; 

when we consider our own weakness and failures, 

we dare not do anything and withdraw. 

We should not confuse boasting with courage 

and withdrawl with humility. 

Actually, real humility is not considering 

one's own goodness or weakness.  

Boldness is being strengthend in the Lord 

and looking at the Lord only." 

~Watchman Nee~

"There may be, 

and indeed often is, 

a real gap 

between our teaching, 

instruction, 

information, 

on the subject 

of Christian soldiering, 

and the assured conviction 

of being actually in a war—

on active service. 

So many of the Lord’s people 

listen to the teaching...

not really counting 

in the battle. 

To sing 

‘Onward, Christian Soldiers!’ 

and to do no fighting, 

is silly." 

~T. Sparks~

When you invite the Holy Spirit...He always comes!

When you ask something of the Holy Spirit...He always gives something!

And His something is never less...because He is the God of more!

~Pastor David Rodes~

The issue is not the issue. 
Control is the issue!
~Unsure, found inside my old Bible~

We look to our strengths as a pleasing aroma to offer God.

Sometimes—the best we have to offer Him is our weakness.

Don’t worry about the steps ahead that you can’t see, just take the next one that you can.

Lavish your weakness upon God!
Praise Him and give thanks in the process!

~Pastor David Rodes~

May Gratitude Purge My Heart of Complaint!
~Pastor David Rodes

"When one door closes another opens.

But often we look so long, so regretfully upon the closed door

that we fail to see the one that has opened for us."

Helen Keller

Do We Realize...

...that there is nothing the devil dreads so much as prayer? His great concern is to keep us from praying. He loves to see us "up to our eyes" in work--provided we do not pray. He does not fear because we are eager and earnest Bible students--provided we are little in prayer. Someone has wisely said, "Satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray."
--Unknown Christian, The Kneeling Christian