Winning every time

-

Your mercies, God, run into the billions; following your guidelines, revive me. My antagonists are too many to count, but I don’t swerve from the directions you gave...Your words all add up to the sum total: Truth. (Psalm 119:160)

An "antagonist" is something that competes with something or someone so as to counteract the actions of the thing it is competing against. For example, when we give an antibiotic, the purpose is to counteract the 'hostile biologic organism' that is attacking your body and bringing illness to it. The antibiotic launches a counterattack against the bacteria that has multiplied within your body. The result is noticed when the bacteria begin to die, and the effects of its attack are no longer observed. Some antagonists are good - others can actually be quite harmful when left to their own devices, though. It might just do us well to actually understand some of the harmful antagonists in our lives if we are ever to launch a good fight against them. We must recognize them if we are to counteract them with our own defensive strike.

Antagonistic influences are all around us - acting as triggers for some particular reaction from us. Just as the invading bacteria begins to affect our bodies, the 'invading influences' we allow to go unchecked in our lives can get out of control, leaving us weak and wounded. "Invading influences" are really those things that 'trigger' us into doing something we know isn't the best thing for us to be doing. For example, if viewing certain things on the television stir up thoughts about how 'hum-drum' your relationship is with your spouse, the next thought might be to consider what it would be like to be with that handsome guy or beautiful girl you work with. In time, those 'unchecked' influences you continue to entertain may actually lead you to make a choice to cheat on your spouse. Did you purposefully set out to do that? Not likely, but those 'unchecked influences' that seek to invade our thoughts and hearts can lead to some pretty dumb mistakes.

The antagonistic influences we experience are not without God's 'counteractive measures'. Why do you think God tells us to get his Word 'inside' of us? When we are bombarded by antagonistic influences, we can counteract them with the TRUTH. Truth is the 'antidote' to any lie from the enemy of our souls. Truth is the foundation upon which we launch all our counterattacks against the antagonistic influences in our lives. This might seem a little too simple for some - believing there must be some other thing needed to fight off temptation within their lives. The more TRUTH we put into our lives, allowing it to actually take root and create a solid foundation upon which we make decisions, the less the antagonistic forces will have an inroad into our lives. If you don't believe me, begin to put the TRUTH into your life and see for yourself. Truth is not negotiable - it wins every time! Just sayin!

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment if this message has spoken to your heart.

Popular posts from this blog

Sentimental gush

-
9-11  So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11 MSG) Sentimental gush - that is what I kind of feel when I watch some of those sappy "and they lived happily after" love stories. Yes, I believe people can "be in love" and that "love will find a way" and all those other cliches about love. Don't think I am down on a solidly committed and growing relationship - it is just that our world often portrays love in ways that are totally gushy and then doesn't show the very 'hard' side of that loving being vital and vibrant
Read more

Is that a wolf I hear?

-
But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. (Romans 6:23) Have you discovered that you no longer need to listen to sin tell you what to do anymore? If you are like the millions upon millions of others who have said 'yes' to Jesus, you likely still have a bit of a struggle in this area. Sin just doesn't 'go away' when you say 'yes' to Jesus - the ability for it to control you does, but the enticement to sin is still presenting itself. The issue is not whether sin still entices, it is really an issue of which voice we will listen to the most frequently! We can listen to our own inward lusts (desires), or we can listen to the sti
Read more

Not where, but who

-
It isn't where we worship - it is who we worship. It isn't about a place - it is about the heart. This Samaritan woman came to draw water from a well, but I doubt she expected this encounter with Jesus. She knew the prophets had predicted the Messiah to come, but did she know she'd encounter him at the side of the well? She just went there daily to draw the water and return to her duties back in the village. Today, she would not only be challenged by someone who knew her past, but she was being challenged to have her future changed for the better. That is how it is when we encounter Jesus - our past might have been a challenge for us, but our future doesn't have to be! “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?” Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer ma
Read more