Too often, we let evil get the best of us. We allow negativity to prevail. We give it force. We feed it. That's because -- as a preacher recently pointed out -- we magnify darkness -- illness, bad luck, accidents, family difficulties -- instead of magnifying God.
Thus, a question: what do we place more faith in, the disease or the Person Who created the body -- and, hence, can cure any illness?
It is important to recognize, isolate, and quash evil, but really, do we always have to obsess on the "bad"? Should we ever concede defeat? Might it even be wise at times to ignore an issue once we have done what we can (leaving it now to faith)?
"Obsession" has the hiss of the snake, and when we become too immersed in a dilemma, it's like using a magnifying glass; the details grow out of proportion; we're consumed. Magnify, magnify, magnify God instead. Praise Him. Praise is your great defense. See God as larger than the Empire State Building (while the devil is smaller than a grain of sand, which is the way, in comparison, it really is).
Don't "entertain" the negative or it will perform like a broken record and eat away at you. There will be no end. Instead of a magnifying glass, instead of a microscope, instead of dwelling on every dark detail, use a telescope -- looking at your problem through the wide end of it, so your problem appears small and distant. Soon, that will be the reality.
God created everything. All is under His domain. And it is a great test of life to see if we can abandon our troubles and sufferings and ourselves to Him as did Jesus at Calvary. When we do, we open the way for potential miracles. We can move the "mountain." The Lord breathes our way. We ascend. Perhaps better put: His power intensifies around us.
Now, to repeat, when we become fixated on an problem is when we give it power. This is hard not to do -- correct?
A financial adviser shows you a red ledger. A child fails at school. There is a crisis in a relationship. A doctor comes in and announces: "terminal" cancer!
(Who on earth is not "terminal"?)
As the same evangelist pointed out, this actually happened to his mom, who was diagnosed with that disease and given five weeks to live. She pushed aside an obsession with the dark "finality" of the disease; filled her home with healthy, smiling photographs of herself; and stepped into the role of victor instead of victim.
That was thirty years ago. Recently, she attended the funeral of the doctor.
We know another woman who had breast cancer that spread to the lymph nodes. She simply refused to accept the disease. She allowed a prudent measure of medical intervention and then blocked thoughts of the disease out -- in effect convincing herself it did not exist. She has lived years beyond the expectations.
Recently, there was a report in the news of a woman who knew how to abandon herself. "Helen Dunsford, 66, was a customer at a Bank of America in Oakland Park, Florida, when a woman reached in her purse, said she had a gun and yelled for everyone to get on the ground," we are informed. "As other customers listened to the orders, Dunsford tackled the would-be robber, and held the suspect down until authorities arrived. 'She got on my last nerve,' Dunsford said. 'I have cancer, stage 4, and I figured if I'm gonna die it's God Will when I die. She's not gonna shoot me.'" Same with the evil one: Don't let him rob you of hope, don't let him reach into the purse of your blessings, because when he does, he's robbing you of the chance to tap into the Power that created not just this planet, but the universe. Unleash God's Power, not the enemy's.
If you saw a tsunami coming, would you seek higher ground or dive into the murky waters to study it? What we need to do is lift our eyes to the Lord and above the floodwaters. Hit the high ground of Scripture. Pull out the Bible every day. Become consumed by His Word, instead of the whisperings of the devil. And he does whisper -- constantly! You'll never be able to do that. You are going to fail. You'll be embarrassed. Why try? It's not for you. You can't be cured. You will die in agony.
Baloney!
He is around every corner with a bat; he sticks out his foot every time he can. Yet we fall only when he diverts our attention. He can only defeat us if we play by his rules.
Play by God's. Look up, not down; look up at the Crucifixion. Look at the way Jesus locked His Eyes on the Heavens before He died. And the glory afterward!
The Blessed Mother has said that with enough prayer, we will not even feel the passage into Heaven.
Magnify the Lord, not illness, not hardship, not fear, not brokenness. Lord, I love You. My God, You are my Everything. To You and You only are my eyes fixed -- oh Great One, Lord of Lords, praise You, Creator not just of earth but of the cosmos, and eternities beyond.
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