“…my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Psalm 18:2b
A good friend and I were talking about likes and dislikes, and I mentioned that a recent gift was not to my taste. My friend responded with something like, “You’re so fussy, why don’t you stop whining and grow up!” and walked out. I was amazed and hurt at this fierce response, especially since my friend’s opinion is important to me.
As I sat there overwhelmed with feelings of self-pity, almost immediately the Holy Spirit again brought to mind Psalm 62:1, “My soul finds rest in God alone….” Then 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 flashed into my thoughts, “…my power is made perfect in weakness…therefore I delight in weaknesses, hardships, insults….”
Those verses, coupled with a willful giving of thanks for this happening brought a sharp change in my emotions, swinging me up to a fierce kind of joy at facing a rebuke and profiting from it. It was like first being swept off the cliff of touchiness and tumbling down towards the valley of self-pity, but on the way down grabbing onto a branch of the tree of Truth and climbing back up to solid ground.
Using another analogy, the Spirit led me to let go of my natural thinking and negative emotions (self-pity, pride, anger) so I could hold on to biblical Truth (I am forgiven, accepted in Christ, secure in Him, His love, His affirmation), allowing me to rise above the attack of the world, the flesh and the devil and thereby profit from my friend’s rebuke.
At first I fell into a trap of the devil, but with the Spirit’s help and guidance, was able to immediately escape by raising the shield of faith, getting on the helmet of salvation and taking the sword of the Spirit. It was a small incident, lasting only a few minutes, but was a powerful example of how clinging to Truth in the face of life’s negatives frees us to soar above the mundane and to look with spiritual eyes on the eternal. If I hadn’t done this, I would have struggled on with my hurt, probably then hurting others by my poor responses.
Being in Scripture and knowing the Word is such an important part of this. Without the every-day soaking in Truth I would not have escaped. Our weapons have to be at hand in order to have victory in the attacks.
Prayer: “Lord, help me to be consistent in my daily time with you, worshiping you, reading, memorizing and meditating on your Word, and praying in line with your will, so that when the attacks come, I may be able to cooperate with the Spirit and defeat the enemy, for your glory. Amen.”
Picture: on the tractor with my grandsons, Simon and Benaya
