Getting a Grip When under Attack

An accusatory text message, an assuming e-mail, a discovery of a lie or a bit of deceit… my initial knee-jerk reaction can turn the raindrop into a torrential downpour.  In this season of my life, I have been showered by small unexpected offenses that have the potential to evolve into damaging floods of emotion if I don’t pull out my umbrella of counsel from the Word of God.  With God’s counsel, I am becoming better at distinguishing the words that manipulate – words intended to cause guilt in order to maneuver for control.  Even more, God helps me to see through His perspective and enables me to get a glimpse from their shoes. Then the umbrella of grace, understanding and forgiveness deflects the words and keeps me from measuring the depth of offense.

But sometimes I am so slow to anger, it would almost seem my reaction is delayed as I mull over the assault.  Then it begins to gradually simmer and then boil up inside of me until I am no longer able to focus on my work. I start to question what is true. I question myself. I try to recall the history of progression. I mull over the facts versus the assumptions.  At some point, though, I have to get a grip on the barrage of thoughts and emotions. Ultimately, I want strength, Truth, and for my every thought and step to be in line with God’s will and purpose.    

I keep this prayer at my desk for times like these. It helps me feel strong, seek truth, and binds up my thoughts and emotions so that I don’t lose control:

In the name of Jesus Christ, I bind my body, soul and spirit to the will and the purpose of God.  I bind myself to the truth of God.  I bind myself to an awareness of the power of the blood of Jesus working in my life every day.  I bind my mind to the mind of Christ that I can have the thoughts, purposes and feelings of His heart in me.  I bind my feet to the paths you have ordained for me to walk, God, that my steps will be strong and steady.  I bind myself to the work of the cross with all of its mercy, truth, love, power, forgiveness and dying to self.

In the name of Jesus Christ, I bind  Satan and I loose his hold on everything he has ever stolen from me.  I rebuke his works and loose the power and effects of every deception, device, and influence he wants to bring against me.

Lord, I repent of having wrong attitudes and thoughts, I renounce them now and ask forgiveness.  I loose every old, wrong pattern of thinking, attitude, idea, desire, belief, habit, and behavior that may still be working in me.  I tear down, crush, smash, and destroy every stronghold I have erected to protect them. I bind myself to the overcoming behavior and spiritual desires that line up with the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Father, I loose any strongholds in my life protecting wrong feelings I have against anyone.  Forgive me as I forgive those who have caused me pain, loss, or grief.  I loose any desires for retribution, or redress. 

In the name of Jesus, I loose the power and the effects of any harsh or hard words spoken about me or by me. I loose any strongholds connected with them. I loose all generational bondages and their strongholds from myself.

Thank you, Jesus, that you have promised whatsoever I bind and loose on earth will be bound and loosed in heaven.
Amen.

(If you know the source, let me know so I can credit the author)

From Blah to Awe - Book Review

I tried bribing my teenage daughter to read the New Testament in exchange for a desperately-desired belly-button ring. Why would I do such a thing, you ask? She says the Bible is hard to understand and terribly boring, so she rarely cracks it open. By resorting to bribery, I hoped that if she at least got into it, she would find it interesting, even intriguing. Deep down I hoped it would touch her heart and soul so much that she would decide she didn’t need that belly-button ring anymore. I have yet to see if she will persist past the 4^th chapter of Matthew.  Maybe I need a different approach, and this is what attracted me to Jenna Lucado Bishop’s new book for teenage girls, From Blah to Awe: Shaking Up a Boring Faith.

Jenna Lucado Bishop doesn’t promise a vibrant soaring faith or a dynamic 24/7 awe achievable by the end of her book. However, she somewhat accomplishes her point – to shake us up a little so that we can stop settling for dull and blah and enter into a fuller, richer season of faith. She explores the questions of why we might get bored with God and how to shake our faith out of boredom.  By finding out why, we can then ask ‘how’.  She touches on the issues that teen girls face today that compete for time with God, like sensory overload. Through stories of other teen girls, she provides relatable examples. Opportunities to interact are presented throughout the book with thought-provoking questions and spaces to write out answers.

My teenager felt like she was being lectured at in between the stories, what little bit she read. I think this would be a great book for a teen, young woman, or even a preteen girl raised in the church who feels like she knows it all, struggles with self-righteousness, and is bored in her faith. When I was a teenager, I would have underlined and written all over this book! Considering the things my own teenager faces though, I think the reasons for boredom with God go much deeper than mentioned in this book and would be very little help for those in a full-blown war against Satan and the flesh.

To comply with regulations by the Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, I am disclosing that BookSneeze® provided me a complimentary copy of this book.  I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed are my own.