Tales of monsters under the bed and in the closet will keep a young child up at night afraid to go to sleep for fear of being consumed before morning. Heart begins to pound and thump in the ears. The child tries to make sense of the dark and begins to see things that are not there?
“Mom did say that if I dared to leave my room before morning that the monsters under the bed will eat me, but she didn’t say anything about those poisonous snakes that now surround my bed!”
The child screams for mom to save him.
To an undiscerning parent, they will dismiss the fear of the child saying, “it’s just your imagination,” and instruct the child to go to sleep. The child is paralyzed in fear and doesn’t want to be alone with those imaginary monsters and snakes in the room.
What belief does the child learn to carry into adulthood? That which is unseen is not real. At least that is the mantra they will repeat to comfort themselves when they feel that stone cold presence in their room at night. When those anxious thoughts spin out of control like a rat-wheel in their mind.
“It’s just my imagination. It’s not real.”
What do you say to yourself?
What do you say to yourself when sharp disagreements come out of nowhere? How do you internalize the argument that unraveled a relationship in record time? What do you believe about yourself when it comes to that person who doesn’t like you even though they barely know you? Just your imagination?
What happens when infighting inside churches lead to a split? Is this just a group of people who have allowed their imagination to get the best of them or is there something else present?
Home of Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit
At this very moment I am watching J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Hobbit”. I am once again drawn into this tale. The struggle for good to defeat evil as the battle rages on but it is not the actual story that has gripped me this time. Oh no. It is thinking about the number of people who worked behind the scenes to bring this classic alive through brilliant cinematography.
We see on the screen the work of 106 actors. How many worked behind the scenes? 2,832! It took 5 hours to complete the hair and makeup, prosthetics and wardrobe for each dwarf. Four tons of silicon was used for facial prosthetics and 860 bottles of rubbing alcohol needed to remove them. More than 140,000 coffees were made during the production. That’s 35,000 litres of cappuccinos! (stats published in the dailymail.co.uk)
There is far more action taking place behind the scenes than in the movie itself and our reality is no different.
Daniel is mourning over the desolation of Jerusalem and his people taken captive by the Babylonians. Three weeks after he pleaded through prayer and fasting to God, he was standing on the bank of the great Tigris River when the answer to his prayers came in the form of an angel who gave this explanation for the delay;
Daniel 10:12 & 13 NIV
“Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.”
An angel entrusted to deliver a message to Daniel was detained for 3 weeks…21 days, until Michael came to his aid. How does the answer to one man’s prayer attract so much attention? One must ask what was to be gained and what was to be lost?
Who stands to gain when we live in fear, anxiety, dissension, broken relationships, etc? What is going on “behind the scenes”?
“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 6:12 NLT
Weapons of our warfare
The world is at war and it is so much bigger than this current pandemic of SARS-COVID-19. To ready yourself for battle will require more than “Now I lay me down to sleep” kind of prayers. This kind of battle requires a warrior-hearted man and woman who is living a life devoted to the one and only Jesus Christ, filled with His Holy Spirit, equipped with God’s Word and motivated by love.
What? No real weapons?
Oh, these weapons are real, powerful and effective in the unseen realm.
Test it. Next time you are in the presence with a contentious person, take a moment to ask God to give you the strength to lead with love and watch what happens.
Fear flees from a child held in the comfort of their mother’s arms for perfect love casts out fear. Arguments over nothing become laughter over nothing and the relationship remains in-tact. Divisive people within the church jockeying for control will either lay down their agenda for the greater good or leave.
The real battle rages on behind the scenes and you have the opportunity to learn how you will engage.
