The Trap of Self-Doubt

It's amazing how quickly one can go from feeling great to feeling horrible. When I see something that reminds me of a mistake that I have made in the past it can cause me to dwell on it. I end up ignoring the present while wallowing in my imperfections and not  focusing on Christ's perfection.

A few weeks ago I backed into a truck and today I happened to see that truck again. The whole way home I was distracted, dwelling upon what I would say if I ran into him again(not with my truck this time). It caused me to drive home in "auto-pilot" and make even more mistakes. When this was brought to my realization I also saw how this is true in other areas of my life.

Focusing on past failures, whether relational, managemental, etc. just leads to us missing the present. We lose time that God has given us to bring more people into His kingdom when we dwell in self pity. No matter how much we think about the things that we regret will not change it the past.

I have struggled with this so much in my past and God is slowly renewing my mind so that I focus on His perfection instead. He has made me new and my mistakes do not define me; His grace and choice of me does. So I can now go up to the guy I backed into and make it right not covered in shame but in the knowledge that Christ still loves and wants me. Hopefully this transfers to other areas of my life as well.

Humble War

"And Asa cried to the LORD his God, "O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, you are our God; let not man prevail against you." 2 Chronicles 14:11 (ESV) emphasis my own

As the Government of Alberta seeks to take away God's design for families there are ways that we can fight. First of all we need to determine the enemy and his/her tactics. According God we are not fighting against flesh and blood but against the dark unseen forces of evil, aka, the devil and his cohorts. He seeks to steal our hope in Christ, kill our fruitfulness in the work for the kingdom, and destroy the works of God in the earth. Remembering who the real enemy is we can fight the battle properly.

This war doesn't start and end with the government and their regulations, it starts in our hearts and ends when God is victorious. In the prayer above King Asa is humble before God. He knows in His heart the weakness of man compared to the enemy. The devil was his enemy back then just as he is own enemy today. We are weaker than the devil on our own but through Christ we are stronger. Just as on his own Asa was weaker than the Ethiopians but with God he was able to defeat them.

Since our enemy is the Devil we need to know his tactics, he starts by destroying our view of God. He did this in the garden. He plants a seed of distrust towards the word and love of God. He wants us to doubt God in our hearts because he knows that this will change how we live every moment of our lives. It will remove our willingness to love those around us in heart and action. He wants to divide the church of God. So we need to start with asking God to seek our hearts for any wickedness so that we may walk humbly and purely before God, conforming to His design. The battle starts in our hearts not our parliaments.

When God has worked through our hearts He will turn to our actions. The enemy wants us to live contrary to God's plan, which means living in isolation and dysfunction. Therefore the next stage in this war is to align our actions with the Word of God so that we may glorify Him in how we treat others. Are we broken over the sins of the world? Do we show God's love to those we come in contact with? Do we love above all else? The Law of God is summed up in two things: Love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbour as yourself. When we do this we put God's word and glory above our own views and glory. This battle will rage our whole lives but it needs to be started before we can fight in the public sphere.

When God has worked through our actions He will turn to our interactions with the secular world. Only when we are humbly walking before Him in the light of His goodness and grace can we effectively go to battle against the injustice of oppressive governments. King Asa was following God's Word and so were the people. They conformed their practices to God's design so when they prayed this prayer in the face of their enemy God gave them victory. God will give us victory over the enemy when we, like Asa, humbly seek His deliverance. This must happen in all the stages.

So as we seek to defeat the oppression of this Government we must seek first to defeat the oppression of sin in our lives and the lives of those around us. In light of eternity what Government we have now won't matter as much as what we did when they arose.

Keep in mind that this was written in light of the grace and finished work of Christ Jesus our LORD and King.