INTRODUCTION
As a man thinketh, so is he. (Pro. 23:7)
Many of us find life to be an incessant struggle, an overwhelming and endless series of confrontations with one impossible or unsolvable circumstance after another, constantly battling fear, anxiety, and worry, trying frantically to get our breath despite the billowing waves crashing down upon us.
Is that the life God really intends for us?
We have heard it said that once born again spiritually we are truly a new creation in Christ (Rom. 8:18-23; Gal. 6:15), literally a new species far superior to the race of Adam (Lke. 7:28). Nevertheless, we fail to realize that we still bring into our new life the thought patterns and habits from the old life. The result is that what God intends for us is usually frustrated. We become disillusioned and discouraged, and fall away. What is the remedy?
*****
We all need to come to understand that we will never realize the extent to which we
can really be transformed, nor will we enjoy the freedom from Satanic oppression, and all the other magnificent benefits purchased for us by Christ, until the problem with our old way of thinking has been cured.
There is one and only one way to do this: our mind must be renewed by His Word (Rom. 12:2). Sadly, God’s people perish for lack of knowledge (Hse 4:6). What knowledge? – the knowledge of His Word – the knowledge of what the King of all Creation has said. If He is King, doesn’t it follow that it is important to know what He has said?
The natural or Adamic way of thinking, the method of thinking through things that is endemic to the nature we inherited as a son or daughter of Adam, is to rely solely on our natural reasoning. we see or assess a threat or potential future undesirable situation (e.g., insert current fear/problem/trouble), we then see our inability or limited ability to improve the situation through our own meager resources, and we then react, logically, with stress, fear, and anxiety. Satan then torments us in our unbelief, conjuring up further scenarios for us to have to deal with and fret over.
Moreover, we thereby create “landing places” for the demonic to assume residence within ourselves, and our mental, emotional, and physical problems are severely compounded. You see, because we do not know what the King has said, we do not therefore know the Truth. As a result, we are relegated to believing lies.
And that is the problem: Lies.
This way of thinking – the reliance solely on our natural reasoning, is not only tragic but foolishness to God (1 Cor. 2:14). Why? Because it completely excludes from the equation Him and His Word! And He is the Maker of Heaven and Earth. The Most High is to be feared, a Great King over all the Earth. (Ps. 47:2) Is it prudent or logical to exclude from our manifold deliberations as we go through life what the Maker of all this has to say? Even if what He says often appears to be illogical?
And have no doubt, it often is illogical from a human perspective. What God says in His Word often makes no sense whatsoever to us. He states quite clearly in Isaiah 61: “My ways are not your ways and my thoughts not your thoughts”. Of course His thoughts aren’t like ours, and they shouldn’t be. He sees all of reality and has all of the facts. We see a portion of reality and have few of the facts.
Who, then, should we trust under those circumstances? Us or Him? Our thinking or His?
We should consider our natural reasoning, in and of itself, as foolishness, as He does. (See 1 Cor. 1:18-31). Our reasoning is only useful and performing its proper function when we reason from the Word of God, not in place of the Word of God by excluding what He has said in our evaluation of our circumstances.
What do we really know about life and reality anyway, especially the unseen and eternal? As the Word says, It is You who created us and not we ourselves. (Ps. 100:3) Isn’t it amazing that the Holy Spirit through David felt it necessary to point out something so obvious? But He did so precisely because we live our lives as though we did create ourselves, and as though we have the responsibility to run things accordingly, when we are well short of the ability and wherewithal to do so.
Consider Genesis 3. In choosing to take the fruit contrary to God’s admonition, the Scripture demonstrates that Eve went through a very careful mental exercise where she decided to exalt her own natural reasoning above or in place of the Word of God. In effect, by doing so she made herself God, as she would now make all the decisions for her life from here on out, even though God had created her, and not she herself.
The resulting disaster – the product of that manner of thinking, is played out every day in this world. As Eve’s children, isn’t that still what we all do?
Belief in God is often something with which we try to impress others. When the chips are down, we find that we really don’t trust Him and so we panic, as it then becomes evident that we always believed deep down that we really depend only on ourselves anyway. And, boy, is that scary.
Panic is the perfectly appropriate response given the premise of our thinking – that we are in charge. But when our thinking is renewed by His Word, we soon realize that this natural way of thinking is a vestige of our former life when we were of the race of Adam; it is not of our new life in Christ. We who are believers are now in blood covenant with this Great King. He assumed personal responsibility for each of us when he birthed us in Christ, as any good Father would. “If you earthly fathers, being evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more your Father who is in heaven knows how to give good things to you.” (Mat. 7:11)
Do we really think He would leave us like this? Would you leave your son or daughter in such a circumstance – defenseless against the vicissitudes of life? Preyed upon by fear and worry and Satan?
***********
Well, then, what does He have to say about our predicament?
Be encouraged – The Lord has spoken directly to every one of our situations and circumstances. For example:
- Psa 18:2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psa 18:3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies.
- Psa 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?
- Psa 31:19 How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You, Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, Before the sons of men! Psa 31:20 You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man;
- Psa 32: You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.
- Psa 33:18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness.
- Psa 34:4 I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears. Psa 34:5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces will never be ashamed. Psa 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him And saved him out of all his troubles.· Psa 34:7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them.· Ps.34:15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are {open} to their cry. 16 The face of the LORD is against evildoers, To cut off the memory of them from the earth. 17 {The righteous} cry, and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.
- Psa 48:14 For such is God, Our God forever and ever; He will guide us until death
- Psa 50:15 “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”
Let’s just look at that last one again: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.” Because it is uttered by God Himself, that one sentence, that one single Promise, could be the basis of deliverance in a thousand lifetimes of every conceivable trouble. No wonder Peter extols the very great and precious promises of our God! (2 Pe. 1:4) And every one of these promises is “Yes” to us who are “in Christ.” (2 Cor. 1:20) They are ours! Yours and mine! All because He loves us. All inherited through faith and patience. (Heb. 6:12)
Now, the above is a random survey of less than the first third of one book of the Bible – the Psalms. Obviously He is trying to drive home a point, that we are to trust in Him and in Him alone. If He says it once He says it 50 times in the Scripture. He must mean it. He is “not a man that He should lie.” (Num. 23:19) And since He is not a politician, He does not qualify His Promises.
We know that all who seek to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tit 3:12), and that in this world we will have tribulation (Jhn 16:33), plenty of it, but when affliction comes, if we are diligent to constantly look to Him, we have His Word that we will be saved out of ALL of our afflictions (Numbers 21:5-9) – no ifs ands or buts. Our God is a God of Deliverances! (Ps. 68:20)
Got it?
Like any person of integrity His Word is important to Him. Like any King, He is jealous for it, and looks over it every second, the Scripture says, “to perform it.” (Jer. 1:12) He has exalted His Word above his Name. (Ps. 138:2) If He had said He would only deliver us out of “some” of our afflictions, we could never have faith that He would save us out of any affliction. But He says He will deliver us out of ALL of our troubles, and ALL of our fears, AND all of our afflictions.
Why does He say that?
Simple. So that we will believe and say like the people of Israel said when they saw with their eyes Elijah call fire down from heaven – “The Lord, He is God.” (1 Ki 18:39) And like Zacharias said when prophesying the birth of Christ – “Surely God has visited His people.” (Lke. 1:68)
Unbelief is replaced with belief in our hearts, and He is exalted as God where He should be and honored by us accordingly, for our own good and to His Glory. Why is He so intent upon “looking over [His] Word, to perform it”? (Jer. 1:12) One reason: to uphold His reputation among all the denizens of the Universe.
What happens when the Word of Authority is not recognized in any context? Just think about home life when Daddy or Mom gives an order that is not respected. Chaos results as authority is effectively dethroned. For God to be a King He must have a Kingdom, and a Kingdom is where the Word of the King is law. The very functioning and existence of the Universe depends on it. The stakes, therefore, are high, very high.
Therefore, God, like any person of integrity, is inseparable from His Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. (Jhn 1:1) He will stand behind it forever. Jesus said: “Not one jot or tittle will pass away.” (Mat. 5:18)
Finally, we should understand that His eagerness to fulfill His Promises to us is not dependent on our worthiness – which is good news because we have no worthiness. Thankfully, His deliverance is not a function of our alleged goodness or cuddliness or love-ability. Isn’t that comforting? Otherwise, if fulfillment of the Promises had to be earned, we could never have faith for their fulfillment.
Instead, His fulfillment of His Promises is a function of His jealousy for His great Name. Moses understood this. It’s all there in Numbers 14. He appealed to God’s reputation when the Israelites rebelled in the Wilderness for which God was about to destroy them. Moses didn’t defend the people. Instead, he simply said to God (paraphrasing): “What will the Egyptians and the rest of the world think about you if you do this? They will think that you were incapable of fulfilling your Promise and your Word which everyone has heard about – to bring us into the land you have given us.”
That got God’s attention. We can do the same when affliction torments us. We can appeal to His Great Name and remind Him of His Word – if we know it. You can be sure He will uphold His reputation. He can’t afford not to.He gives us His Promises because He loves us, and would not leave us in this predicament. He enforces them, though, not only because He loves us but, more importantly, to uphold His reputation. He knows that the Universe’s continued functioning depends on His Word as King being honored.
Therefore, this is what we are to do to see the manifestation of His Promises:
- We stare at the Promises daily – read them slowly, roll them over in our mind, and begin by memorizing all or parts of Psalms 25, 34, 91, 103, and 121 and maybe the verses above, and thus “renew your mind” to start thinking properly. This is at first work but then becomes quite exciting because you come to realize that, like God, His Word is alive and powerful.
- Refuse to take your eyes off His Word even when circumstances tempt you to conclude that He does not hear you or has taken no action. That is natural thinking from the old life. Every time Satan shows up, just as Jesus did, respond strictly with the Word! Reject the lies.
- Your natural reasoning, emotions, eyes, ears, friends, etc. may all tell you something different than what His Word says. Despite all of that, continue to believe His Word because it simply has to be true. It cannot be otherwise. If the Promises above are not true, then neither is the salvation Promise, so in that event let us eat, drink, and be merry and forget about this whole business of heaven. If one Promise is false, we have no basis for relying on any.
* * *
We are in a battle with Satan and our own flesh, all the unbelief and tendency to exalt our natural reasoning over His Word that we inherited from the original rebels, our forefathers – Adam and Eve. The battle takes place in the mind.
Please read carefully. This is the admonition given by the Holy Spirit to those who refuse to take the step of faith and live on the basis of His Word, and thus forego the rest the Lord desires for us:Heb. 4:1-11: Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard… Therefore, since it remains for some to enter [His rest], and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience (the woilderness Jews), He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.” For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works (worries), as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest,..
The Sabbath Rest for the people of God is there for us when we change our thinking, finally, to rest in what He has said, and forego our own labors and assorted machinations to manipulate people and circumstances in futile efforts to solve the latest problem. Simply rest and abide in His Word, and trust Him, despite all the swirling madness around us.
Jesus never struggled with His circumstances. He didn’t even defend Himself at His trial, but rested and entrusted Himself to Him who judges righteously. (1 Pe 2:23) We are to do precisely the same. Think on this: The king’s heart [is] in the hand of the LORD, [as] the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. (Pro. 21:1) If He can turn the King’s heart and mind as He pleases, what do you think He can do in your particular situation to turn the heart/mind of your spouse/boss/mother-in-law or banker?
What is futile for us is easy for Him, “for nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37) Finally, to reiterate, He has promised deliverance when, and only when, we look to Him, so that He will be glorified in that deliverance – and not Chance, or Luck, or me or you or anyone else.
Although we do not now know what form that deliverance will take, we can be sure that it will be a deliverance that He will be proud of, which will bring Him Glory, and which, if we are looking to Him for rescue, we will clearly see is a splendid deliverance indeed. How else would He be glorified? He does nothing halfway.The King has spoken – He will uphold His Word and deal with your afflictions to where you too will realize it.