On Guard!

Throughout both the Old and the New Testaments, the Bible tells lots of stories of individuals being spoken to or led by an angel or the Lord Himself in their dreams.  But I’ve also been told from the pulpit, that if you don’t remember much of the dream when you wake up… then don’t try to make anything of importance out of it!

Well… I had a dream early this morning and while I don’t recall the actual content of the dream… I did wake up with some negative feelings toward myself.  Whatever the dream was about, it definitely was demeaning to my self-confidence.  As I laid there in the dark for a few moments, I suddenly turned over and noticed that my clock next to the bed read 3:35AM.  I knew that I needed to do something in order to shake the emotional thoughts and decided to get up and get a drink of water.

But you know… an interesting thing happened as soon as I stood up and took my first few steps toward the sink in the adjoining master bath.  My mind was rapidly filled with scripture after scripture reminding me of how much God loved me… and of how special I was to Him!*  Then after a few sips of water, I was reminded of some thoughts that I had considered the previous evening, when I was kind of feeling a teeny-weeny bit sorry for myself and had wallowed over how special and important Piper always made me feel!

But in the midst of those thoughts, I had to stop and sheepishly smile when I heard that all familiar, small-still-voice on the inside of me softly say… “Well, you don’t have her around anymore Jim… but you do have ME!”  Then another interesting thing happened… as I stepped over the dog who had gotten up to see what I was doing stumbling around in the middle of the night… I realized that ALL the negative, demeaning thoughts were gone!

I remembered that early morning event about four hours later after I had gotten up for the day and with a fresh brewed, hot cup of java in hand, turned in my Bible to James 1:26 in The Passion Translation and read,

“If someone believes they have a relationship with God but fails to guard his words then his heart is drifting away and his religion is shallow and empty.” 

There is a lot of meaning in that verse that we’ll explore in additional posts, but for today, in thinking back to my early morning activities, I saw how my somewhat well-trained subconscious mind stepped in to override the negative words that were attempting to harm me through the dream I had.  You see, from the early days of our marriage, Piper and I learned and made a dedicated effort to keep watch, or as our scripture says, “to guard his (or our) words…”

That particular truth is actually one of the mainstays of the denomination that we have been a part of since we left the Baptist church at the end of 1982, as well as with the Bible College I attended.  Both the Old and New Testament writers, under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit, spoke of the importance of the guarding of our tongues.**  

Think about it with me for a moment… What type of individuals do you enjoy being around?  Those who simply speak whatever thoughts or words that pop into the heads… no matter how harsh, false, demeaning or insensitive they may be… or those who take the time to consider and think about the words they share with those around them… those who carefully phrase their comments, counsel or suggestions in such a way as to best fit the situation at hand… and/or the understanding of those that they are conversing with?

I’ve told of some of the awful and less-than-encouraging words that some folks said to me and my kids when Piper got sick.  At times I was tempted to get angry, be frustrated with their lack of sensitivity, or just stand in front of them with my mouth wide open in shock… but I learned… I had to learn… to control my emotions so that I could hear the Lord (and not be led by the distractive voices) and then respond according to His plan.

I have also learned… like I experienced in the wee hours of the morning today, that I not only have to guard myself from the reception of the words spoken to (or at me) by someone else… but also from any negative words that I may hear and consider that come up from inside of me!

I’ve discovered that the best way for me to think about myself, (as well as toward others) is to think in the same way that the Lord, through His written WILL and WORD… as found within the pages of our Bibles… thinks or says about me!

After all, in the gospel of John chapter seventeen verse seventeen, Jesus Himself asked His Father to “Sanctify them (His followers… ie; you and me) through Thy truth”  and then declared, “Thy word is truth.” (KJV)  Therefore… if the Word of God is THE TRUTH… then I want to KNOW… and to BE who the Word of God says that I am… and not listen to any other mis-truths or more commonly known today as “MIS-INFORMATION” that might be spoken toward me!

I also want to continue to do my best in guarding over the words that I speak… in order to best meet the needs of whatever situation I find myself in… and/or best minister to those around me!  Wouldn’t you agree for yourself?

Oh Yes... Have a great VALENTINE'S DAY today! 

...and as you do, enjoy a piece of chocolate for me and keep EXPECTING God’s best while His best words coming from your lips today!

 

 

*The same way that He feels about ALL of us! (John 3:16 et all)

**See scriptures like: Proverbs 10:19, Proverbs 18:21, Ecclesiastes 10:12-14, Mark 11:23, James 3:6-9 and many others as well as our verse today in James 1:26.