I gotta P!

"I gotta P!"

The past few nights, I've been reading Psalm 27, and, I've found myself amazed at how David talks about the enemies are against him, how they fell, and, no matter how bad it got, he was going to trust in the Lord, Who was his Light and Salvation.

Right after that, in verse 4, David says he only desired one thing - "to dwell in the house of the Lord...." "to behold the beauty of the Lord."

One of the things that I often listen to is training related to marketing, and, one thing that I've learned, and learned to notice, is that our perspective of the WHAT that we see is guided by HOW we see it.

For instance, I may see a glass of clear liquid in a cup in my kitchen, and, think about picking it up to drink it, believing it to be a cup of water, but, if for some reason, I'm led to think it could be poison, I won't see it as water, but, as possibly something very different.

I've probably been writing about this for a long time, definitely over a year now, - how we - yes, you and I, are being manipulated by folks that don't care one thing about us - the media and the government - to live in fear, suspicion, angst, uncertainty, and even paranoia. You don't have to pick up a paper, go to a website, or turn on a news broadcast to see how our brains are being engineered to be scared and angry.

Why?

Because scared and angry people are EASILY led - EASILY influenced, and EASILY manipulated. Why do the news networks spend millions of dollars daily to keep us up to date on the murders, disasters, wars, and what certain political leaders are doing?

Because fear and anger are non-contained emotions, so, while we may only get a certain amount of joy out of a good pie, there is no limit to how angry or scared we can get with the right about of mental manipulation.

Because they are the ones that push out the fear and anger, they are the ones that get rich - with advertising dollars, our attention, our trust, and an ever-increasing portion of our thought lift.

Listen....should we be careful in every circumstance? Absolutely! Take precautions - ALWAYS. Don't be stupid.

That being said - if we took a step back and looked at this from the perspective of "this season will represent less than 1/2 of 1% of most of our lives," and realize that there are forces that are trying to control our lives, we may think different.

People - we ARE going to die. Stuff is GOING to happen. . Car wrecks, home accidents, brain aneurysms, plane crashes, boat mishaps, heart attacks, and the like can take ANY of our lives INSTANTLY. On the other hand, there are plenty of ways to die slowly, too.

We ARE going to die.

We ARE going to have uncertainties. Even in my 41 years, I've seen the most solid of companies and financial futures go away into overnight obsolescence, rock-solid relationships go awry, and the more secure jobs done away with.

We ARE going to have uncertainties.

I think that when we find ourselves addicted to this bad news, or, worse yet, being manipulated by it, we're showing that we trust the problem more than the Promise.

Friend, if you're IN Christ, then Christ is in You! He has said that He would NEVER leave you AND never forsake you (EVEN when you're foresakable.) You are being upheld by His Righteous Right Hand. You are being fed by His Hand daily. You are being covered and surrounded like a shield. And..you're right in the middle of a process that is going to grow, strengthen, and establish you as one of God's sons and daughters.

Yes, these reports are designed to wedge themselves right into our deepest insecurities, and, believe me, I have plenty.

But, maybe we need to forget that the call of the Christ-follower is that we are to be IN this world, and not OF it, and, along those lines....even though God is there to encourage, love, heal, and bless,

If we aren't learning to DENY ourselves AND our flesh, we can't manifest or become what we are being called to - Christlikeness.

Oh, one more thought...

If we're waiting on the actions of others to make us feel safe and secure, then we're going to be waiting a while - because, that's God's job...and it's our job to rely on Him for those feelings.