"God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Are you full of fear, doubt, or anxiety today? I want you to grab a piece of paper. An 8x10 size will be perfect. If you cannot grab one then picture you have one in your hand and follow this exercise in your mind:
Take the piece of paper (literally or mentally) and tear it in half. Take the two pieces you just tore and tear them in half. Now you have four pieces. Do it one more time. Look at the divided pieces. Is it still paper? Yes, it is still paper BUT it is no longer whole! This is exactly what anxiety does to your mind. Jesus said something extremely powerful in Matthew chapter 6. He said, "Do not worry about your life." We can read read this in English, and we assume Jesus is saying .."just relax, chill, stop stressing." But the word He uses here for worry in the original Greek is the word merimnao. One of its meanings is to be pulled apart mentally. Oh, it gets deeper than that. That word comes from the root merizo which means to divide, to separate, and to TEAR INTO PIECES (like the paper you tore in the exercise). So..
Jesus isn't just telling us just relax, chill, stop stressing. He's telling us DO NOT LET YOUR MIND BECOME DIVIDED. Think. Who loves division more than anyone? The enemy. His entire strategy is separation. Sin is what separates us from God. Division is what separates us from one another. Anxiety is what separates your mind from trust. The context of this passage is so important because a couple of verses earlier, Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters." Then immediately after He said, "therefore, do not worry." Why did He say it in that order? Because He understands a divided heart always leads to an anxious mind! Worrying isn't just about fearing what's to come, its allowing your heart to become divided between what God said and what your circumstances are saying.
The strangest part is science is finally starting to catch up to what Jesus taught thousands of years ago. There was a related research paper on this subject where a couple hundred people were followed over three years. This is what they discovered. They found that the more people fixated on their symptoms, the worse those symptoms got over time. Not only did the article report more severe symptoms, but their MENTAL AND PHYSICAL FUNCTIONING DECLINED. It lterally got worse! The more fous and attention they gave to the problem, the more power that problem seemed to have. I'm not saying the validity of those symptoms aren't real. The symptoms ARE REAL. What I'm saying is, your focus can become a catalyst that perpetuates them.
What if the enemy doesn't even need to destroy you? All he has to do is divide you. Divide your trust, divide your attention, or divide your focus. Because if he can divide your mind into a thousand different directions, he can keep you from, "Seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33). Maybe this is why Jesus never said, "Seek first love," or "Seek first peace." He said, "SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD" because when your heart is whole, then your mind can start becoming whole again.
Until He Comes,
-Pat-
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