| Whatsoever
Things Are True
by Dan Coburn Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church pastordan@mtida.net Anxiety flourishes in ambiguity. What? Anxiety is the root word from which we get anxious. To be anxious is thought of in the positive in today's society as in: "I'm anxious for Santa Claus to get here". But Anxiety or being "anxious" is not spoken well of in the Bible. Why? Because it can dominate our thought process and occupy in both quantity and scope, the mental focus belonging uniquely to Christ, and is thereby sin. It is also (from a loving Father's perspective) detrimental to both our Spiritual and Physical well being - "Be anxious (careful) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." Eph. 4:6. Nugget: Is this a command or a suggestion? Either way, it is the will of your God for your life. Now for the Ambiguity part. For this application, we'll define ambiguity with a few other palpable qualifiers. They are "maybe, could, might, potentially, possibly, etc. Thus the title = Anxiety flourishes in ambiguity. It's a great weapon used by Satan daily as first reported in The Garden when He asked Eve: "Did God really say if you ate of that tree you would die?" -------- Doubt. How does it look for us today? Nugget: As you read the following, please don't ascribe motive to my words. Simply weigh for yourself if they are true or not. I am not espousing the wearing of masks or being vaccinated, nor am I condemning them. Whatever you decide for you, I respect and support; but do any of the following ring a bell? "We may run out of ventilators. We could be short of PPEs. There could be a spike in cases. This could be the blackest winter we ever had. There is a possibility of the virus mutating. The world potentially will be un-inhabitable by the year 2000. The polar bears could go extinct. California might lose 20 feet of shoreline. Remember, don't ascribe motive. For the sake of our point, let's say all these things come to pass. Point is, we just don't know. Let's turn the Spiritual Switch: For God hath not given us the spirit of Fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2nd Tim. 1:7 If you take inventory of your thought processes in a given day, how would you describe them? Are you living in a state of love, joy and peace devoid of anxiety? In the Sermon On the Mount, as recorded in Matt. 6, our Lord culminates His admonitions of peace with the following: "Take therefore no thought for the morrow (don't worry about the future): for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Read that again. Is that a command or a suggestion? The Apostle Paul reiterates in Phil. 4 when he says: "Finally (in conclusion) brethren, whatsoever things are (present tense) true (not ambiguous) ....................... think (meditate) on these things." vs 8 Nugget: Satan is the author of doubt, confusion and chaos. He would love to hijack your peace and joy which will rob you of your witness as a Christina. But vs 8 gives us a list of things to ruminate on. This is what we are to occupy our minds with. ".....but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15. God bless. |
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