Why The "Panicking Christian"?

Like most Christians, I occasionally find myself in a borderline, all out panic about something which I already knew, but seem to have forgotten or that I only knew in my head, as opposed to my heart. And mercifully, God decides to show me what is really going on or what it is that I needed to know, before I completely lose my mind.

So the writing within is just that. It is that which God has shown and taught me while I was typically in one of those times in my life. Since the way in which He has chosen to reveal things to me tend to be fairly easy to follow and understand, I am sharing them via this format. That said, I take no glory for any of this. It is God whom has given me the ability to write, and it is He who has given me the content to write as well and He who saved me by His glorious grace in the first place.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Know What I Feel Like?

But the waves are calling out my name
and they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
time and time again
"Boy, you'll never win,
You you'll never win

But the Voice of truth tells me a different story
the Voice of truth says "do not be afraid!"
And the Voice of truth says "this is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of truth.

~The Voice of Truth – Casting Crowns (2004)

You know, the intro at the top of this page tells the general what and why I do this. How we can so easily forget what we know the truth to actually be sometimes. I use the term we because, frankly, I am most definitely in that category. Take recent events, for example.

I am not going to go into all the particulars, but I will say that, over the last bit of time in my life, I had forgotten who I actually was. You see, I had a run of events in my life that were, how shall we say, less than pleasant mixed in with some which “should” have been quite pleasant. But I got distracted and I choose to identify myself with circumstance and feeling rather than with anything I knew to be true. To say it was disabling is an understatement of gigantic proportion.

What type of circumstance or feeling you may ask? Allow me to fire a couple out there for you (although hardly complete). Now the following may or may not be my exact circumstances, but I can say that if they were not those recent ones, they have existed for yours truly.

Something ends - specifically, something like a job or an intimate relationship. Or perhaps we say “yes” to the wrong impulse and stumble into the muck and mire of a less than pleasant place, perhaps from out of our very own past. How often in those moments do we identify ourselves with that “ending”? How many of us have felt as though we had been rightfully rejected? That we were worth very little, if anything at all, to ourselves or anyone else? That we were a failure. That we were alone, not only in our circumstance or situation, but in life in general. That we were of no use to anyone, including God. That we were no different than we had ever been in our past lives. That we would never be anything other than just another screw up. That there is no possible way that God could ever really want us or use us for anything other than perhaps to show others “what not to do”. That we were certainly doomed to a life and eternity of judgement and condemnation. And lastly, that God (or anyone else – selves included) could never, ever truly love us where we are right now.

Any of those sound familiar to you? If they don’t, I dare say many must be at least a tiny bit envious of you – whether right or wrong. But if they do have a ring of familiarity, trust me on this on, you are not alone by a long shot. Not even close.

You see, while it is easy enough to start to identify ones-self with how we feel or based upon what we are going through in the moment, there is a slight problem with that – temporary. Our feelings change from one moment to the next, as do our circumstances in this life. Even those which are far less than pleasant, do fade into the past eventually – although in the moment we may feel like our life is all but completely over or see no reason we should even think about going on.

Consider if we were to do that all the time, with all feelings that we have and not just those which come in our darkest moments (which is when we tend to do just that). How interesting it would be to sit and watch cable TV for a full day and evening. Sometimes deep in reflective thought, sometimes laughing like a fool and other times sobbing all but uncontrollably. If you were to try and identify yourself with those “feelings” brought on by what you were viewing and hearing, you would be a wreck – not a clue in the world who or even, what, you actually were. Honestly, does not make much sense any other time either.

Okay then, who, you may ask, am I (feel free to drop your own name in there in place of the “I”)? Here is a quick, partial answer (again, by no means complete) for you:

I am the light of the world (Matthew 5:14)

I am a child of God (John 1:12)

I am a friend of Jesus and He is my friend (John 15:15)

I am united with the Lord and am one in Spirit with Him (1 Cor.6:17)

I am righteous and holy (Eph. 4:24)

I am chosen by God, holy and dearly loved by Him (Col.3:12)

I do not belong to the night or the darkness, but I am a child of the light (1 Thess.5:5)

I have been justified and have peace with God (Romans 5:1)

I am forever free from condemnation (Romans 8:1)

Now here is something for you to “really” stop and think about:

None of those are true because I say they are true. None of those are true because of how you, or I, feel. None of those are true because of where we currently find ourselves in this life of ours.

They are TRUE BECAUSE GOD SAYS THEY ARE TRUE ABOUT YOU!

These are not things which you or I have to aspire to. These are things that the Lord God says currently about you and I.

So do not get caught off guard and start to identify yourself with how you feel or what is going on or what has recently gone on or what you think someone else may feel about you. Those things change all but constantly. Listen and believe the voice of TRUTH and tell all those other voices to just "shut up".