The Battle Within
January 23, 2024
Faith
January 23, 2024
Faith
From the dawn of history all of God’s creatures have battled for survival, whether a lion defending its territory from a hyena in the African savannah or a band of dolphins defending themselves against a shark. While animals don’t spend most of their life fighting for survival, it is a part of their daily lives; always on high alert. Unable to go beyond fight, flight or freeze, I imagine the senses of wild animals are always on the ready. Stress hormones coursing through their veins at any abnormal sound or movement. For humans, we’ve been blessed with consciousness and while some on Earth may find the animal kingdom more relatable to how they survive, most of us don’t.
Instead, we find ourselves battling with co-workers, family and sometimes animals! However, for me, I find my biggest battle isn’t with others, it’s within my own consciousness. Aware of the consequences, I freeze not physically, but mentally, trapped in my thought’s half looking for an exit and half looking to just chill in the darkness. I can see the struggle inside welling up; the seeds of discontent growing. Circuitous in nature, my thoughts while in freeze are like a merry-go-round spinning faster and faster and without action like fight or flight the darkness consumes me. From the outside my family sees me behind a locked door, unable to reach me. On the other side of the door, I’m safely trapped in anger and resentment. Behind the locked door I feel in control, keeping the opportunity for resolution at bay.
Illusions surface that I have power over my life, power to control the uncontrollable. I was raised to tackle the world on my own, not having parents that came alongside me, but rather encouraged me to figure it out on my own. Being king of solo decision making has worked out well for me in most circumstances, however, when behind a locked door my decisions most always turn selfish. In my new frame of mind, a plan forms and takes over my very existence; powerless and robotic, I walk blindly toward the door, insert the key, and walk through. The only issue; my actions aren’t through Christ.
I look over in my mind’s eye and realize that I’m not alone at all. Like a master puppeteer, Satan has convinced me that I can battle my way through ‘this’ with him as my guide. Unknowingly I empower Satan and become overwhelmed by self-righteousness. The distinct opposite of this, which is somehow ironically harder for us…is surrender to God’s will. The puppeteer doesn’t want anything good for you. He wants your misery, and he wants misery for those around you. He wants the ultimate in disconnection and discontent. He wants you to be powerless and pointless and his goal is achieved through your justified anger.
Surrender on the other hand, which is scary and not palatable to most of us, is the placing of our desires, and the illusion of our own control down. Hand it all over to Him. Sometimes we wait a while for God’s answer. Remain patient in His silence; obeying his direction. The answer always comes if we are tuned into the right station…the frequency of God. He has a plan for us
He’s got ‘this’ and He’s got us! What he wants is greater and far more brilliant than anything we, and especially the enemy, could ever concoct. The path he has plotted for each of us is fantastic. Filled with far more than earthly pleasures, his plan is filled with heavenly treasures. HE SAYS SO!
So, I circle back around and ask…what are you fighting? Do you know? The answer within the struggle is to untie the knot and loosen the rope. If you can…dissolve the rope. It doesn’t need to be there. There is no tug, there is no war. Stop wrestling with yourself. Stop wrestling with God. Surrender – “to give oneself up to the power of another”. God has ultimate power. And when you remember that he also has an ultimate plan, and it’s all GOOD, his plan makes sense. You can TRUST THE PLAN. Go where GOD guides you. I promise…. you’ll be surprised and delighted at the journey he has laid out. Through Christ we aren’t relegated to just fight, flight or freeze, don’t be the lion or they hyena.
