September 21

Who’s the cause of most of our trouble and conflict? Who’s responsible for the feelings we have of inadequacy or fear or anger or depression? Who’s the one at whose door we may place the blame for our failed relationships and our inability to reach desired goals?

The devil? Humm…maybe it’s God. He’s in charge of everything after all. Oh, sure the devil tries to trip you up if you’re endeavoring to please the Lord; although he’ll pretty much leave you alone if you’re going your own way instead of God’s. To even suggest that God is to blame is to negate the goodness and perfection of His character. He is our strength and our help, not our adversary.

There is one additional suspect we might need to consider in the mix. It’s the one who does more to sabotage us than even God’s ancient foe, the enemy of our souls. It’s us! Our fears, our inhibitions, our negative emotions are part of the residue of the old nature that lurks within us even after we’ve given our hearts to the Lord. The Word prescribes a mighty anecdote for the negative poison that’s part of our inherent make-up and which endeavors to surface even when we think it’s gone.

In II Timothy 1:7, we are reminded that, “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” If we will appropriate these amazing gifts and if we will employ them when temptation to lapse into the negative attitudes that once dominated our character resurface in our lives, we will find they act as dikes that have the power to hold back the surging sea of negativity that wells within—to hold it back and cause it to recede—far from the shore of our existence.