Month: September 2021

“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

            When’s the last time you were in an argument? When someone was doing or saying something that was not fair and you were giving them a piece of your mind? For me, it was just moments ago. The thing is, there was no one else there. It was all in my mind. I was imagining a conversation with someone else and found myself getting upset with that person because of the responses I imagined them giving. Am I the only who does that? Other times something actually did happen that was not fair or nice. But I can’t seem to let it go. I’ll choose to forgive the person and turn it over to God and before I know it, I’m ruminating on it again, getting upset all over. So I give it to God again. And again. And again.

            At times like these, we need to take those thoughts captive. We need to force our thoughts to be obedient to Christ. Just saying that brings two major questions: how and why? The “why” question is easy because it’s in the first part of this verse. These kinds of thoughts are thoughts that set themselves up against the knowledge of God. Let me use my most recent mental “argument” as an example. I was imagining that another person is going to overcharge me for something I plan to buy. Let me say first that I have no idea what will be charged. This was all in my mind. So when I’m allowing myself to get all upset about this, am I trusting God to take care of this situation? Let’s say I am overcharged. So what? Where does my money come from and to Whom does it belong? God, of course. To think that I have to get all upset about this and protect my own possessions is saying that I don’t know God. I don’t know that He is the Provider of all good and perfect gifts, that He will provide for all my needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. In other words, it’s believing a lie. That doesn’t mean I can throw money around like crazy. He expects me to be a good steward of it. But it also means I don’t have to get all worked up about it, nor do I need to worry about the future.

            Another situation is if you find it difficult to let go of past hurts. First, let me say that God understands that pain, the pain of betrayal or disappointment. But when we just can’t let it go, we end up swimming in that sea of pain instead of allowing God to heal those wounds. That’s why He doesn’t want us to stay stuck in these thoughts. He wants to move us to a healthier, happier place. When we believe the lie that vengeance belongs to us instead of the Lord, or the lie that we’ll never be happy again, or the lie that if we forgive that’s letting the one who hurt us get off without consequences, then we’re not trusting God to take care of the situation. Nor are we trusting Him to make us whole again. Only He can do that, and He will if we’ll only let Him.

            When we understand “why,” then we need to figure out the “how.” And that’s the harder part. How do we keep our mind from wandering back to these thoughts? My first reaction is to say that I wish I knew! It’s so hard to do! I can force my mind to think of something else, but before I know it, I’m right back to thinking about it again. The two things I’ve found that seem to be the most successful for me are praise and scripture. When I begin praising God, either in prayer or song, it elevates my mind above the petty things of this earth and gives me a clearer view of what’s truly important. To take my mind to scripture, I work on memorizing God’s word. When the destructive thoughts worm their way back into my mind, I start repeating those scriptures I have already memorized. Whether I use praise or scripture, before I know it my mind is clearer, my heart is lighter, and I can once again believe the promises of God. That’s a thought to cling to!

“When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter.  For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’  So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.” Exodus 13:17, 18

I was once in a Bible study where we got stuck on these verses. Why would God do this to the Israelites? Why wouldn’t He take them straight to the Promised Land? One participant in particular kept going back to the map of the route the Israelites took.  She just couldn’t understand why God would take them on such a circuitous route.  And we hadn’t even gotten to the 40 years of wandering yet!

These verses cause praise for God to well up inside me.  How often does God take us on the round-about route?  And we just can’t figure out why He would do that.  We’re concerned about getting to our goal as quickly as possible, but not God.  His concern is keeping us out of slavery – slavery to sin, to the world, to self.  So what does He do?  He leads us to the desert.  That doesn’t sound like a very nice thing to do, does it?  And where was this desert road leading?  To the Red Sea.  Again, that doesn’t seem to win God any awards for being Mr. Nice Guy.  But that was the setting for one of the most amazing miracles in the history of the Israelites, the miracle that cemented them as a nation.

God knew what was coming for them. He knew all about the 40 years of wandering. He also knew what they would be facing when they finally did enter that Promised Land. There would be enemies there they would need to face as well as some miscommunication and in-fighting among themselves. They were going to need the experience of the Red Sea crossing and God’s deliverance from the Egyptians to give them the courage and perseverance for what was coming their way.

Are you on a long road right now?  Has God led you into the desert?  Are you trying to figure out what in the world He’s doing?  Hang in there!  His deliverance is coming and it may be in a way you can’t even fathom!  In the meantime, let’s praise God for the fact that He’s probably protecting us from dangers of which we are completely unaware. He knows what He’s doing and following Him is never a mistake!

“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:19

What a great verse!  What an amazing promise from an even more amazing God!  There are two parts to this promise. I love the fact that He doesn’t meet some or even most of our needs.  He meets all of them.  And He meets them according to Christ’s glorious riches.  What are those riches?  We are told that all things were created through Christ, so that covers just about everything, doesn’t it?

When we look at the first half of this promise, the question that automatically rises is, “What are my needs?”  Of course, we need certain things for life, like food, water, clothing, and shelter.  Emotionally, we need love and on a spiritual level, we have a basic need for relationship with Christ.  Now let’s compare this important but rather short list with what we think we need.  If we’re honest, we see that when we ask for food, we mean food we like.  When we ask for clothing, we mean the latest styles.  When we ask for shelter, we mean a big house (by the standards of many in the world) with heat, central air, indoor plumbing, etc. 

That brings us to the second half of the verse, which is how God meets our needs: according to his glorious riches. I think that when we get to heaven, we’ll begin to realize what puny prayers we pray. We ask for a grain of sand when God is wanting to give us the entire seashore. I think God delights in surprising us by pouring out blessings that we didn’t even know existed.

The truth of the matter is that God supplies so much more than our basic needs.  He truly does meet all our needs richly!  The most obvious needs that are met are the ones we can see, the physical needs.  But He doesn’t stop there.  Are the bills piling up?  He’ll meet those needs.  Are you overwhelmed?  He’ll give you strength.  Are you lonely?  He’ll give you comfort.  Are you sad or afraid?  He’ll walk right along beside you.  Are you in pain, or facing a harsh diagnosis?  He’ll give you rest.  Are you sin-sick and guilt-stricken?  He has already met that need, by taking that guilt on Himself.  Take some time to celebrate God by counting all your needs for which He has so richly provided.

“He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.” Proverbs 17:9

            Humans are so prone to rank our sins. I think we would all say that murder is one of greatest sins, if not the worst of all. While I’m certainly not saying that murder is no big deal, I believe that when we think that way, we have a tendency to down-play some of the other sins. One of those is gossip. After all, everyone gossips, right? It’s just natural. Of course, there’s the form of Christian gossip: telling something about someone else so others can be praying for that person. A song I enjoy says the response to that should be, “If you don’t mind, I’ll pray for you instead.”

            What is gossip? The dictionary defines it as “casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true.” I’ve also heard it defined as “saying something negative about another person with no end to their good in mind.” I like this second definition because gossip doesn’t have to be a lie. It can be completely true but just because it’s true doesn’t mean we have a to tell others about it.

            Why do you think gossip is such a big deal to God? I can’t pretend to know God’s mind, but I think it’s because it goes straight to our hearts. Who are we loving? If we’re making ourselves number one and thinking only of ourselves, we are very prone to gossip. Especially if we’ve been hurt by another. We think we need others to know how badly we’ve been hurt. We think it will make us look better. After all, we’re perfect, right? But this other person did this horrible thing to us. How could they? Don’t others need to know about that? After all, if they know about it then they will see how awful the other person is and how great we are.

            What if we’re choosing to love the other person with the love God calls us to? 1 Corinthians 13:6 says that love always protects. To protect someone else includes “covering them over with silence.” In other words, you may have something to say about someone but choose to protect that person with your silence. What you know about them may be completely true but if telling others would not be with their good in mind, the loving thing to do is to choose to not gossip, to not tell anyone else. That’s love for the other person, but ultimately, it’s love for God. It also shows our faith in God. We’re not trying to defend ourselves or take matters into our own hands. Rather, we will keep silent as we trust God to defend us in His way and in His time.

            Avoiding gossip is not an easy thing to do. In fact, it can be very difficult. In addition to the reasons given above, gossip is very common in our culture. If we’re not talking about others, then we’re reading or hearing about them. If someone is well known, we want to know all the details of their lives. I have to giggle when I see articles titled, “The secret life of . . .” Or “The untold story of . . .” If it’s a secret, then how does that reporter know about it? If it’s untold, then how do you know? Yet we obviously consume those kinds of stories because we continue to see more and more of them. I believe that reading those stories or listening to those reports is nothing more than taking part in gossip. Ouch. We don’t even have to repeat it to others. It takes two to gossip: the speaker and the listener.

            I encourage all of us to become more mindful of what we spend our time talking about or listening and reading about. Is it about other people? If so, what is our reason for talking or hearing about that? Do we have their good in mind? If not, I encourage all of us to take those thoughts to God. Ask Him to give us the love required to protect that person by covering them in silence. As we move forward on this journey of erasing gossip from our conversations, I’m excited to see how God is going to bless us with renewed and improved relationships.