The will to go forward is a faith choice to do so.

A thought seemingly out of nowhere leads you to make a sinful choice. You see a picture, hear a song, taste a food, touch a shirt, etc., and all of a sudden you find yourself asking for forgiveness.

What in the world is going on? You’re not crazy! This thought came from either one of two sources – one outside or one inside you. Today we’ll deal with the stronghold from within.

In the back of our brains is our hippocampus. Simply put, it stores our life’s experiences to the current moment in time. This information can be put there by us, by others or by the Spirit of God. And, is the source of the thoughts that can trigger us to either move with the Spirit toward truth and freedom or against Him toward lies and bondage.

This stored information (aka “flesh) battles the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). It is a very real battle won only through one faith choice at a time to follow the Spirit. Your enemy knows this. He also knows your past, even the stuff you’ve seemingly forgotten, and will try to use it to trigger disobedience.

The winner of this battle is called a stronghold (2 Cor. 10:4). As believers in Christ, though, we have been given the power to tear down the enemy’s strongholds – no matter who put them there (2 Cor. 10:4-6).

This power allows us to take every thought captive, match it with the truth of the Word of God in order to expose the origins of that thought, and then by faith act on the truth. This process brings freedom from the triggers that can blow up our lives.

The next time you’re triggered by a thought that seems to come out of nowhere, make the decision to deal with it, rather than go with it. Begin to create new neuropathways to victory by building a new Godly stronghold in your hippocampus (Rom. 12:2) through daily faith choices.

Choose to be triggered toward Jesus, the place of safety and strength.

Life is not about what you can achieve, but who you can become.

God found David to be a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22). David’s life had some extreme highs and extreme lows when it came to accomplishments, which David pursued even into his golden years.

Yet, God didn’t measure David’s life by what He did, but by who He was becoming – a man who loved Him with all his heart, even if that meant watching a few sheep or killing one very tall man.

Understand, God doesn’t need us to do anything for Him. He is self-sufficient. Nothing we do or don’t do adds to or subtracts from Him. All He wants from us is to love Him in faithful obedience.

The moment we put our faith in what Jesus achieved for us, not in what we achieved for Him, we became God’s workmanship for the good work He has for us to do. True fulfillment, then, is to seek His heart as to what that is and then doing it with Him no matter our age or gender.

What could that be? Well, Jesus once defined achievement as simply giving someone of a cup of cold water!

Life, therefore, is no longer about the what of the achievement, but everything in the becoming like Him while doing the what with Him. No matter how much you bargain with the Lord over the what, you will never be satisfied until you choose to do His what with Him.  

It takes both the bee and the flower to make sweet honey. Don’t worry about the what He has for others. Enjoy the what the Spirit has for you. Sweet Christlike qualities will taste like a cup of cold water on a hot day to a thirsty person.

“Three things I pray/To see thee more clearly/Love thee more dearly/Follow thee more nearly/Day by day.” Stephen Schwartz

“Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.” This is best illustrated in 2 Kings 6. Elisha the Prophet was giving military intelligence to Israel’s king through words fed to him by God.

This intel ticked off the King of Syria, who sent his army to capture Elisha. One morning, Elisha’s servant sees his massive army surrounding the city that terrified him.

Elisha tells his servant to relax and then asked the LORD to open his eyes to see what he couldn’t see at the moment – God’s army of chariots of fire! The servant couldn’t see this army before; and thus, was afraid of what he could see – the massive Syrian army.

Feelings of fear were reversed through added information/truth. This is the point of Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” (ESV)

As followers of Christ, what we see at times can cause us to be fearful, which can paralyze us at best or cause us to retreat at worse. Yet, this feeling can be reversed with specific information the Lord can give…if only we’d ask.

God told Jeremiah to ask for information he needed to act upon by faith to stand strong in the midst of what he was seeing – prison walls!

Emotions make us human. They are real. But, sometimes they are based on lies or a lack information. Truth must rule our lives more and more and emotions less and less.  

The servant saw a massive army and became fearful. What did he need? Specific truth to combat what he wasn’t seeing – God’s army.

We must apply Jeremiah 33:3 when our emotions/feelings seem to be overtaking our lives by praying, “Lord, open the eyes of my heart to see the truth I need to combat the feelings/situation I’m currently facing in order to draw closer to You.”

Learn from your tears.

I love my wife so much. Yet, I know myself, with all my faults, and wonder how she can love me as she does. Tears.

I love being a dad. Tears. Transparent? It was super difficult when both my children got married. I knew they married the person God picked for them. And, I’m very proud to call them my bonus children, not a son or daughter-in-law.

Yet, I teared up at both their weddings out joy for their future and sadness at the loss of them no longer being in my home. I also teared up when I recently was told that I’m going to be a granpapa (my chosen name) for the very first time.

There are even certain themes in my favorite TV show that cause me to choke up. As well as when I see what humans do to each other as a chaplain who goes on patrol with his officers, I can tear up on my way home.

Tears. Do real men and strong women cry? If they are seeking to become more Jesus they will. Life, with both its highs and lows, can bring on the tears. As a man, even Jesus teared up.

Yet, was it over the suffering his friend Lazarus’ death caused his sisters or because He loved Laz so much as some at the tomb thought? Or maybe, was it because He was ticked off at Satan for bringing death into the world, with all its unnecessary pain (John 11:33 – groan and troubled).

There are many causes for tears. We can ask the Spirit, however, to show us what is causing them in order to grow to new levels of knowing and following our Father just as Hezekiah (2 Chron. 25), David (Ps. 6), Asaph (Ps. 80), and Jeremiah (Jer. 9) did.

Life can be joyful and painful, sometimes over the same situation. We can make it about the tears/situation; or, we can learn from and draw closer to Jesus because of them. This is our choice.

As you choose the later, your joy will increase, despite their cause.

“God never said the journey would be easy, but He did say that the arrival would be worthwhile.” Max Lucado

Joseph had a dream that one day his entire family, including his parents, would bow down to him. As Joseph was not the firstborn, this would not come about through any natural succession.

So, if this dream was from God, it would have to come from another direction. And oh boy, what a direction (Gen. 37-50) that would be!

First, his bothers sold him into slavery and faked his death. Then he passed a seduction test, only to be thrown into prison. Finally, he does a favor for someone who could get him out of prison only to languish in prison for another two years.

Scripture says that the LORD was with him, but did Joseph see slavery, imprisonment and betrayal as something that God was using to fulfill his dream?

We possibly see a glimpse of understanding God’s perspective with the naming of his children. But we know with 100% certainty that he got it when he tells his brothers, “You meant it for evil, but God used it for good to save our family and many others.”

Joseph didn’t have God’s perspective until the end of his ordeal. He went through the unfairness of life to reach the point where God’s purpose did come true. It most likely didn’t happened as he would have wanted, but it did come about.

Perspective informs perception. The way you think will be the bases for how you interpret life as it unfolds. Perspective: God is in control, despite what others do or don’t do. Perception: life may seem out of control and/or unfair, but I can still praise God in the midst of it because He will work all things out for His good in my life in the end.

How you interpret life starts with your perspective. Does Jesus owe you anything, or do you owe Him everything? The more your perspective lines up with God’s Word, the greater you’ll be fulfilled despite life’s disappointments.