Confidence (3) - Anxiety

Anxiety is born out of a lack of confidence in our God.

The phrase from the Amplified™ Bible in Psalm 106 keeps repeating itself as I see my festering anxieties and the anxieties of believers around me:  "...they did not [earnestly] wait for His plans [to develop] regarding them."

-Dad has anxiety over the concern that his job really won't pay the bills anymore and he's going to have to do something...
-Mom has anxiety over the concern that her kids are really not getting what they need in homeschooling and she's going to have to do something...
-One kid has anxiety over concerns that his natural tendency toward unproductive behavior is an impossible obstacle to overcome and he he's going to have to do something...
-Another kid has anxiety that his "sure" future won't wait any longer for him and he's going to have to do something...

Hitherto, the Lord has helped us all.  We lose confidence.  We get anxious. We are "going to have to do something", (on our own).  WE DO NOT EARNESTLY WAIT FOR HIS  PLANS TO DEVELOP REGARDING US.

We do need to do something.  We need to earnestly wait for His plans to develop.

He Has Done It

Buddha
Joseph Smith
Sun Myung Moon
Muhammad
Anton LaVay
L. Ron Hubbard
Charles Taze Russell
Confucius
et al.*

These men developed or recycled a religion based on some being(s) or a force that is more powerful that a human:  Beings or forces ranging from the universe itself to aliens from outer space. Adherents are to follow an organized behavior or set of rules to attain a higher state of existence and to reverence some feared higher power, or reverence some material object - like our environment or the universe.

Special behavior and rule-following to make ourselves better appeals to all of us.  Even an atheist seeks self-improvement.  What is religion without self-improvement and attainment of a higher state of being?  When I hear a comedian saying that religion is "(foul expletive)", politicians say that the religious are bitter-clingers and Hollywood's finest say that religion is a crutch, I have to think they might have something right, (although the foul expletive is not necessary to make the point). The word "religion", as it is used today, is just an adherence to a behavior designed to make people feel better about themselves and their future.  Those misguided entertainers and politicians appear to understand that, though they usually have their own religion of fame, power and ideology, (making hypocrites of themselves).

How about dropping the "religion" and going free?

Perfect freedom has only ONE requirement:  BELIEVE.

There is only one Man that has made the way to heaven available.  That way does not require organized behavior or some man-made system. There is NO SELF EFFORT here. This One is the only Man who had the following words written about Him a thousand years before He walked the earth, (unlike the men listed above):

"I will thank You and confide in You forever, because You have done it, [delivered me and kept me safe]. I will wait on, hope in and expect in Your name, for it is good, in the presence of Your saints (Your kind and pious ones)."  Psalm 52:9

"All the mighty ones upon earth shall eat [in thanksgiving] and worship; all they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him, even he who cannot keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve Him; they shall tell of the Lord to the next generation.
They shall come and shall declare His righteousness to a people yet to be born--that He has done it, [that it is finished]!"  Psalm 22:29-31

It is finished!  Your attainment of a higher state has been accomplished through no effort of your own.  You don't need religion, a crutch, an opiate, a rigid set of rules or organized behavior.  Why make your life more burdensome than it already is?  This is between you and God.  No need to "farm it out" to a clergyman or anyone else.  Just BELIEVE!

*These men didn't do it. Yes, the name of Jesus Christ is missing on purpose.  He doesn't belong on this list.  He is God; not only a man and HE HAS DONE IT.  His bones were not laid to rest somewhere on earth.  Don't you think His followers would protect and reverence His remains if He were only a great human being, prophet or founder of a religion?

Peace Box

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand [anywhere else]; I would rather be a doorkeeper and stand at the threshold in the house of my God than to dwell [at ease] in the tents of wickedness.  Psalm 84:10

Men compartmentalize.  We have "boxes" for storing thoughts and information.  Yes, the "nothing box" is an all-time favorite, but there's one even better:  It's called the "doorkeeper box". As aware as I am of what this world has to offer, the chaos, treachery, brutality, deceit, the decay and darkness; that doorkeeper-in-the-house-of-my-God gig seems like the best form of eternal employment possible.  It's that peaceful state that the New Age movement is always trying to pursue.  It's what people turn to mind-bending drugs to try to find.  It is really service to Him, (being His bondman), in His own beautiful, safe place - but only as we trust Him in everything.

There's peace beyond my understanding in that verse and in that box.  The real truth is, we that believe are looking forward to something much better than a peaceful doorkeeper job.  We are sons of God and will be enjoying the unfathomable privileges of that.  Peace is one of the great rewards of trusting Him.

Insistent Desires

 

When we are self-focused, more interested in our own plans and want to get it now, we become the ones described in some verses in Psalm 106.  When we say, "Lord, how come I can't hear you, aren't you with me to help lead the way?" we are probably in the middle of the throes of our insistent desires.

"But they hastily forgot His works; they did not [earnestly] WAIT for His plans [to develop] regarding them,
But LUSTED exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted and tried to RESTRAIN GOD [with their insistent desires] in the desert."

If this becomes true, watch out for what comes next:

"And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls..."

We have this tendency to forget, lust and insist on our own way.  We can also evaluate ourselves in the mirror of God's Word and are able to recover because we tap into His all-sufficiency by way of that precious book that He gave us.

Purple Attraction

I noticed that the state troopers have gone from blue to an indigo flashing light set on their vehicles.  The result is an increased attraction of the eye to their vehicle when the lights are on.  Out of the large field-of-vision on the highway, the eye is drawn to the first tiny revelation of that indigo light, even miles away.

There's something about the attractiveness of something that is almost off the end of the visible light spectrum:  Almost beyond perception, but it hooks your attention more powerfully that something in the middle of the light spectrum.

There is an association here:

"...so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible."  Hebrews 11:3

"...while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Cor. 4:18

So it is that the human mind and soul is attracted to spiritual things.  Spiritual things are just beyond our senses, but the subject matter hooks our attention.  Thus the success of Buddhism. Catholicism and other religions that tap into the spriritual realm, but require human effort rather than simply believing in the all sufficiency of the great I AM.

The purple lights are attractive, but watch out for that last-second fork in the road as the world, the flesh and Satan would derail from the path to true eternal unseen things.