Hello. My name is Alyssa, and I am an expert in the realm of stress.
Not surprisingly, God had to beat me over the head with about 12 different two-by-fours before I calmed down enough to hear what he has been teaching me. (Literally--we’re talking an accident at work, fire, sickness, sound system disasters, and a whole lot more…) See, the problem with going through trying times is that the only things shining, usually, are your true colors. That is to say, it’s easy to keep everything together when your world is great and dandy. But let one irritant into our snow globe of personal perfection and our fatal cover-up is exposed. Think about it this way: God brings us through deserts, not snowstorms.
In a desert, you have to shed layers to survive. In the snow, where we would probably rather be, you keep adding layers and bundling up until the real you disappears into a mound of scarves gloves, and thick coats. God, however, wants the real you. If you can’t be real about yourself before God, what business do you have asking him to reveal Himself before you? God will not honor a religious façade. He is, however, the Rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So here are some things God showed me in this…
seriously…
trying…
time.
#1: Our relationship to God is our choice
NIV Psalm 103:7 “He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the
people of Israel.”
There are two kinds of “believers” out there: those who know God and those who know about God. And the difference is
absolutely fatal. This verse exemplifies the two choices that we have in our
walk. Do you want to know God’s ways,
or are you after his deeds?
On the side of knowing God’s ways,
we have Moses. He walked in unparalleled closeness to God—he saw his glory and
spoke to him face-to-face, “as a man speaks with a friend.” He was not about
coming before God with any kind of personal resume; if you need any evidence,
just check out the precious little fireside chat between him and God at the
burning bush. There are only a handful of things that seriously set Moses
apart: his closeness to God, his humility, and his faith. The Word doesn’t
describe him as some grand warrior, a great political genius, or even the
orator to silence the masses. He just… knew God. His humility kept him from
having clouded vision when coming before God and his faith was his trust in the
God to whom he was so close. Not exactly rocket science here. Yet, somehow,
this seems to be the hardest thing for us to accept.
On the side of God’s deeds,
however, we end up with the most complicated and (being honest here) outlandish
formula for a friendship the world may have ever seen: the Law. See, the people
of Israel were given a shot at being an entire nation of little Moses-es (Moses-i?).
They stood before the glory of God at Mount Sinai, waiting breathlessly
alongside Moses for what was about to happen. And personally, I believe that
any Israelite who would have fallen on his face before the mountain and cried
out, “GOD!! Make me your friend also, that I might know you!” would have been
honored. Yet the silence on the part of “God’s people” is rather deafening. In
fact, the only thing they did say out
loud was to tell Moses they wanted to
be separated from God.
They were afraid.
Of God.
So they sent Moses in their place, in doing so making themselves
spectators in what should have been their championship game. They were all
about God’s stuff—his power, his
ability to part the Red Sea, receiving raw instructions and mindlessly
following them. Or, how about this: gifts of the Spirit. Let’s hit a little
closer to home. Do you want prophecy, or do you want to be in tune with God’s
voice? Do you want healing, or do you want to know the Healer? Do you want to
go around casting out demons, or do you want to be so engulfed in God’s
presence that they leave the room before you get there? How about this one: do
you want to be a great evangelist, or are you willing to be so under God’s
control that he will make himself known without you having to speak a word?
You see, in rejecting God’s presence before Mount Sinai, the
Israelites gave him no other choice for relationship than law. They didn’t want
to know him; they wanted to know about him. So Moses chiseled out the Ten
Commandments and ushered in the era of legalism. I know my God, and I believe his heart was
for each and every Israelite to humble him/herself and scamper up the mountain
just like Moses. (Check Hosea 6:6 in the AMP if you doubt it). God doesn’t want
servants, he wants sons and daughters. And you can’t be a child of God if you
don’t talk to your Father.
#2: God has chosen prayer as the way in which we will be
fed and sustained in our walk.
NIV Exodus 33:12-14
“Moses said to the Lord, ‘You have
been telling me, “Lead these people,” but you have not let me know whom you
will send with me. You have said, “I know you by name and you have found favor
with me.” If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and
continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.’
“The Lord
replied, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’”
I want you to notice the key word here to Moses’ prayer:
You.
He says it eight times in two verses (referring to God). You see,
Moses is not talking to some old English “Our Father,” nor some far-off deity
too busy to trifle with his idiot creatures; Moses is talking directly to his
friend and confidant—not arrogantly, but boldly and with simple assurance. Do
you know who you’re talking to when you pray? Let me tell you: if you don’t
know who you’re talking to, you will never have power in your prayer life. If
you are praying to some lofty idea from the Bible, give it up. If you are
praying to some great and ethereal spirit that’s “up there somewhere…” you
might as well just call Oprah. But if you only knew the God who is “near to
those who pray to him,” who is your Father, who has lavished his love upon you,
who is the undefeated Warrior of all eternity, who owns the cattle on a
thousand hills, and who is absolutely bound by his WORD to hear your voice when
you call out to him, then you had better buckle up; your prayer life is about
to take off.
Here’s another thing to note in Moses’ prayer: He brings God’s
word right back to him. God, you told me
x, so explain it. God, your Word says y; if that is the case, fulfill it.
Moses doesn’t come to hack away at God’s word in doubt, he doesn’t come to yell
at God for what may be perceived as God not fulfilling his word, and he doesn’t
come sniveling in false humility to the task before him. He’s basically just
saying, “God, I know you want me to do this. I believe you have everything I
need in order to accomplish the task at hand; now I call upon you to fulfill
your Word, though I don’t know at this point how it will work out. I know that
you love me and that your plans for me are good, so I trust you in this, as in
all things.” What has God revealed to you? What has God asked you to do? Have
you ever brought it back to Him and
asked for empowerment and clarity? Or did you just take off running to perform
like a circus monkey? (been there, done that…) God doesn’t call us so that he
can play some kind of intergalactic video game. He’s not using us like
controllers. He is asking us to partner with Him in what he’s already doing.
Here’s the crazy part… Check out God’s response: “My Presence will
go with you, and I will give you rest.” This is groundbreaking. Have you ever
thought about this??? Moses was asking who
would go with him. In a sense, Moses was saying, “God, give me some
manpower here! How can I do it?”
God simply said, “Moses, I’m going to give you Me.” Then, God
gives Moses yet another thing he hadn’t even asked for: rest! Moses didn’t ask
for rest; he asked for direction. But when you humbly offer yourself in prayer
to God, he will not only refine what you’re looking for (God’s presence vs.
human help), he’ll add to your blessings that which you could never have
imagined (rest for the leader of at least 2 million people). Can you imagine
the rest that washed over Moses at that moment? He was so at ease before God
that the very next verses in Exodus show him making what is perhaps the boldest
request in human history: “Now show me your glory.” Do you see how the process
brought Moses to another level? He started by simply bringing before God what
God had already given Him. Then, God’s Spirit gave Moses the answer he was
truly seeking. THEN, Moses was empowered by this faith (a response to God’s
grace) to make a bolder request than he could have ever imagined.
Brothers and sisters, may you begin to pray crazy things. Start
out with things like Bless my finances,
but for crying out loud end with something like Bring the world economy to its knees before your throne. May you
reach a point in prayer where you are speaking to God as a man speaks to his
friend. Honestly, if you’re not nearing that point… why are you praying? If God
isn’t your friend, how can you love him? And if you can’t love him, how can you
live this life? We cannot live outside of God’s love. The Christian walk is
meaningless without God’s love.
Without God’s love, we are left in fear and—you guessed
it—anxiety. And (can you handle this?) anything outside of the kingdom of light
must by definition belong to the kingdom of darkness.
#3: Anxiety, stress, and fear are actually red flags signifying a misunderstanding of God’s character
AMP 1 John 4:18
“There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love's complete perfection].”
I could probably just stop here. This scripture doesn’t really need much explaining. But think about this: Fear brings with it the “thought” of… punishment. When we get into punishment, we’re talking about Law again, right? You see, your fear will move you from God’s love and put you right back under the law. Your anxiety is the physical manifestation of an interior belief: Christ’s work on the Cross was not sufficient; you must still sweat out your walk and hope that you can make up for what Jesus is lacking. Ouch. See, fear is actually a mental exercise. It’s true. Fear does not intersect with the physical world.
Let’s take a “real” case here: say I’m being chased through the streets by a flesh-eating zombie (yep, real). Now, no matter what my emotions are telling me (RUN, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD), nothing is actually happening to me yet. Right? I’m still free and clear, outrunning the zombie. But, if the zombie were to catch me and start eating me, I would no longer be afraid. What I had feared in my head is now coming to pass. And although it would be quite bothersome to be sure, I couldn’t be afraid of that which was already taking place. Because fear resides in the dark corners of the mind, where we think that we alone are the master weavers of our destiny. It gathers in these shadows, growing power only in the absence of light. But when light shines upon fear, it must of necessity dissipate—darkness is, by definition, only the absence of light. And in John 1, Jesus is called “the light of men.” And we know that Jesus is God, and God is love. So all analogies hold true.
It is precisely because fear is based on un-reality that it is so detrimental to our faith. Our faith is based on the rock-solid grace of God which was demonstrated in human history by the Cross of Christ. God gave you evidence. Can your looming mortgage payment provide any proof that you will live under a bridge? Can your broken relationships give you any exhibits to support the assumption that you will never have friends again? Can your illness provide you with assurance that you will live out your days in brokenness and pain?
So…
Why do you listen to fear more than the voice of God?
Full-grown, complete, and perfect love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror.
You missed it!
Love turns fear out of doors. Love expels terror. God is Love.
So… why are you performing mental exercises to calm yourself down? Where the heck does the Word say “brown paper bags and yoga turn fear out of doors”? May I be bold here for a second?
Where does the Word say “good deeds turn fear out of doors”? Or how about “reciting God’s scripture turns fear out of doors”? Or even, “going to church turns fear out of doors”? Lord help me, did you get that? God and God alone can expel your fears and set you free. Stop trying to help him and get out of the way!
Anxiety is not a battle you fight. It is a battle God has already won. For greater love has no man that the one who would lay down his life for his friends. The greatest love that has ever and will ever exist has been demonstrated before all time and space. All fear has been cast out. That much love, poured out for us on the Cross, is enough. Brother, it is enough. Jesus couldn’t say “it is finished” if you still had to sweat out anxiety.
Anxiety is when you try to sneak off and handle life on your own.
Knock it off.
I told you guys God had some
stuff to share!
Just because I love you all so much, this last one is on the house…
#4 The only option besides overcoming is to opt-out.
NIV 1 John 5:3-4 “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And
his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Everyone.
How many?
Everyone.
Even you?
Everyone.
Everyone born of God overcomes the world.
And here is the secret: our faith.
And here’s the cool thing about your faith: God is the Author AND
the Perfecter of your faith (Hebrews 12
if you don’t buy it).
It’s all on him. So seriously, stop stressing out.
PS--Just wait until I write about what God is showing me today!!! Key word: "heir". Love you guys!
"another fine bit of writing brought to you by yours truly"
