Racing Through Life Like a Phantom Menace

Suggested Reading: 1 Peter 5:5-11

Before the current slate of Star Wars sequels LucasFilms released the Star Wars prequels, beginning with The Phantom Menace. Depending on whom you ask, one of the most loved or hated scenes in the movie is when Anakin Skywalker, a very young boy competes in and wins a hi-tech car race. Throughout the course of the race the various contestants do their best to knock out the competition through various methods of cheating and sabotaging other vehicles. On top of that, there are sand men poised with guns to try to shoot the racers out of the sky as they zoom past. Anyone in the race has to deal with all of these elements and they aren't only trying to get to the finish line first, they are trying to survive all of the attacks being thrown at them.

Sometimes, the Christian life is a lot like that race. We are racing along, trying to get to the finish line, and then -- whack! -- someone hits us with an attack! Someone sideswipes us with an untrue accusation. We get smacked upside the head with a problem we didn't see coming. Someone cuts our feet out from under us by jumping to conclusions before they have all the facts. We are doing our best, not trying to hurt anyone else, just trying to make it to the finish line in one piece and, every time we turn around, someone hits us from another angle, some unexpected problem pops up and threatens all of our efforts. We begin to feel like, at any moment, the wheels could fall off and we will end up stranded in the middle of nowhere, all alone. And we are scared that if that happens then we aren't going to have the strength to keep going, that we'll just give up and quit.

The bad news? You're not imagining things. 1 Peter 5:8 warns us, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (NIV). We do have an enemy whose goal is to derail us. The enemy's goal is to get us to quit trying, to give up and walk away. And the enemy is going to use everything in his arsenal against us, trying to make us stumble, to get us frustrated so we decide that this life is simply not worth the effort, to give up and let him win.

The good news? The next two verses add, "Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast" (1 Peter 5:9-10, NIV).

Did you catch that? Not only is it possible to endure, but you are not alone in your struggles. No matter how much it feels like you are the only one going through all of these things, you're not. "Your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." The enemy wants you to think you are alone. He wants you to think that you are all by yourself and there is no one to help. And that is a lie. What is more, God promises that even if you stumble, that is not the end of the story. "Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."

God did not get your attention and call you to His side so that he could let you fail. God did not send His Son to earth to die in your place so that you could live a defeated life as the enemy laughs in triumph. Resist the enemy, and God promises that the enemy will flee from us (James 4:7) because God has not given us "a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7. KJV).

With the Spirit of God living in you, you are stronger than you think you are. You can not only survive the enemy's attacks, but you can make him flee. Never give up. Never surrender. You are not alone.

Interrupting Jesus' Crucifixion

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 13:7-14

When I was in college, I was part of a drama ministry team called Love Company. We travelled around to various churches, schools, prisons, and any other places that would have us, presenting the Gospel through drama and theater. One of the skits we did was a very powerful reenactment of Jesus ' crucifixion in which Jesus literally takes someone's place on the cross and then, once he has risen, offers forgiveness to his executioner. There was one particular performance where I, as one of the guards escorting Jesus to the cross, had just exited the stage, and it occurred to me that I did not remember anyone grabbing a necessary prop for the next segment of the skit. I was off-stage and would have had to make my way back onstage in full sight of everyone, disrupting the skit in order to, ostensibly, "save" the skit. I had my hand on the door, ready to move but finally decided to wait and see what happened. After all, I was a newbie. We had people in the group and onstage who had been doing this for several years. So I waited and listened. No one had forgotten that key prop. I just hadn't seen the person grab it. But if I had let my uncertainty reign and my impatience rule me and tried to take care of things myself, I would likely have ruined the moment and hindered what the Holy Spirit was doing.

In 1 Samuel 13, King Saul was waiting on the eve of a massive battle. He had been wanting for Samuel to arrive to seek the Lord's blessing with a sacrifice. But as the window for Samuel's arrival drew to a close, Saul noticed his men getting restless and slipping away, and he grew impatient. Time was almost up and Samuel hadn't arrived yet. So Saul took it upon himself to do what only the anointed priest should do, and Saul offered the sacrifice himself. But just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering Samuel arrived (1 Samuel 17:10, NLT). When Samuel realized that Saul had taken it upon himself to offer the burnt offering, rather than waiting for him,  Samuel told him, "But now your kingdom must end...because you have not kept the Lord's command" (1 Samuel 13:14, NLT). The sad thing is, if Saul had only waited a few more hours, everything would have been fine. After all, Samuel arrived just as he was finishing the sacrifice. But Saul allowed his uncertainty and impatience to rule him, and he was unable to trust either God to honor him for his obedience or Samuel to show up when he was supposed to. As a result, he lost the blessing of God and, ultimately, his kingdom.

How often do we suffer the same fate that Saul did? How often is time running short and we allow our impatience to prod us into acting before it is time? How often do was see people not acting when we think they should and assume they are not going to do what is right or to keep their word? How often do we allow our fear and uncertainty to prompt us to take action when, if we just trusted God a little longer, we would be able to see that God has taken care of everything, that all of the props are where they are supposed to be? How often do we assume that, because we haven't seen what God is doing in the people around us, that God is not doing anything in those people at all? How often do we allow our uncertainty and our fear to prompt us to take action instead of trusting God and waiting just a little bit longer?

Impatience, when it is born of fear and uncertainty, is a signal that we do not really trust God. But God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7, ESV). If we want the blessing of God on our lives rather than the judgment of God, we must resist the urge to act like Saul. We must exercise self-control, power, and love and not allow our fear and impatience to drive us to sin.

Four Kings and a Fearful Android

Suggested Reading: Genesis 14:1-16

In Star Trek: Generations, the android Data finally got to put in an emotion chip and experienced the full-range of human emotions that he had always wanted. Data had always been the smartest guy in any room, the strongest guy in any room, and the most ethical guy in any room, but he had always wanted to be human and experience the same emotions everybody else experienced. But the emotion chip overloaded his artificial system at just the wrong moment. While the villain of the movie was taking his best friend hostage, this incredibly powerful android who could easily have saved the day and stopped the villain was frozen by fear. When I watched the movie the night before the official release I sat there stunned. What in the world was Data afraid of? He should have been wiping the floors with the villain! Instead he was paralyzed and acted like a little baby because his fears got the best of him.

Last time, we talked about how scared Abram was of the Egyptians, going so far as to give up his wife to save his own skin. Well, after God saved Sarai from Pharaoh and Abram was banished from Egypt, he returned to the Promised Land with Sarai and his nephew Lot. Lot was captured by four kings who had come in to conquer the Land, wiping out all of their rivals in the process.  The next thing we know, Abram "assembled his 318 trained men, born in his household, and they went in pursuit as far as Dan. And he and his servants deployed against them by night, attacked them, and pursued them as far as Hobah to the north of Damascus. He brought back all of the goods and also his relative Lot, as well as the women and the other people" (Genesis 14:14-16, NLT). I read that passage, how Abram had conquered an entire alliance of kings who had wiped out all of the local kings, and how he did it with only 318 men, and I thought, If he could do that, why was he so afraid in Egypt?

Fear is one of those things that can sneak up on us. Much of the time, fear is not rational. And often fear loses its power if we can stop and think about the situation or if we simply focus on what needs to be done rather then why it scares us. Don't get me wrong, fear can be a good thing when it causes us to be cautious in circumstances where we might hurt ourselves by simply rushing in. But we must use fear as a tool, helping us to recognize situations that require a little more thought, determination, or prayer. We must never allow fear to dictate our actions.  2 Timothy 1:7 tells us, "God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment" (NLT).  Those three things - power, love and sound judgment - can transform fear from something that drives you into a tool at your disposal.

Don't allow fear to paralyze you. Use fear as an indicator of where sound judgment, love and God's power are required. Then apply them to the task.