Many voices call these days to distract us from the voice of Truth! Voices that capture our attention and steer us wrong. Voices that can sound powerfully strong, right and good and yet, like the sly voice whispering in the Garden of Eden, the snake slithers into our garden and whispers as well.
It’s that voice that tickles the ears and says “It’s ok” and it’s that voice that quickly calls us under its influence, and into its agenda just because it can. Just because it’s powerful and good at what it does. It calls with lies that we won’t hear with human ears! It calls with promises that it won’t keep! It whispers the half-truth and so we hear just the part we want to hear. Let’s be challenged to be on our guard against the sadness and dangers of the evils of our day surrounding us on all fronts. Be in the Word, check it out. Breathe it in! Sleep on it every nightfall and digest it every waking moment! Learn it, Live it, and speak it. Tuck in your heart, your pocket, your purse, your car! Let it be who you are! Christ in you the Hope of Glory!
1 John 4:1 reminds us to not fall into the trap of everything we hear from all manner of voices out there and fall into their web of destruction! Don’t be drawn in by their power and succumb to their authority, but rather check everything out with the Father of Lights first and foremost. Run it by Him and then listen with a spiritual understanding to discern right from the wrong.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”Yeah, watch those who have taken power and speak with supremacy.
1 John 4:1
So they did the obvious. They got into the boat at His command and set sail across the water without care! All was well with their world and yeah, they could simply trust in the ergonomics of natural laws, and that the boat would get them there especially when their Lord accompanied them. All was smooth sailing and all was good ~ until a vicious storm rose up out of nowhere threatening to take them under. They were with their Lord but suddenly their fears were bigger than He was and He didn’t seem to be enough for their moments of panic. They forgot His words of stability and promise of direction about crossing to the other side and when He fell asleep in the boat they felt He fell asleep on the job! He wasn’t disturbed, anxious, upset or even awake! He suddenly seemed to be just like them, without control over the situation and they lost all confidence and all hope in their Saviour and in their circumstances. Beautiful soul, if He’s given the command to Cross to the other side, or to climb the mountain, or walk the valley, you can know He’s either in the boat, waiting on the mountain or walking that valley with you. He’ll get you there when the storms rage, the mountains fall, and the valley gets deeper. No need for panic when He walks the way or sails the seas with us. Yeah, we can know, He really is in control even when it appears hopeless, broken and crumbled.
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
We gotta learn to trust Him even when we perceive He’s fallen asleep in the boat. Wake Him, ask for His help and let Him rebuke the wind and the waves as He speaks peace into the eye of your storm.
So no, you’re not really sure what the day holds or the week, for that matter! As a matter of fact, you’re not ready at all and you’re not really sure about any of it and you’re not sure how you will make it through? There’s just a whole lot of stuff to wade through and a whole heap of unsettled issues pressing in with threats, fears, worries and yeah, some unsettled issues may just press all the panic buttons and weaken your faith, setting you off course momentarily. Friends, the enemy lurks about seeking where he might get his foot in the door, through weakness, so be alert to his undermining tactics of “takedown” and defeat. You and I and we and us, we need the full armour of God for days like these. We need to garb up in God’s divine strength and courage, for the fiery darts, so that nothing can hit us from behind or sideswipe us off our feet. Be sure to grab the Word of God! Put it on early and don’t leave home without it. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6: 10 – 11, 13
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 