Do you ever have a sense of impending doom?  By that I mean, do you sometimes feel that ‘something bad is about to happen’ but you can’t pinpoint the specific thing that is producing the feeling?  Well, that is the feeling that destructive fear produces and it has the power to take over our thought processes and lead us into all kinds of troubling choices and behaviors.

Destructive fear is the result of emotionally living in the future and removing ourselves from the present.  The problem is that the present is reality and the future is not.  The future is largely speculation and conjecture.  Usually, most of our future speculation is based on what we want to happen, or what we don’t want to happen.  In both instances the creation of fear is a potential by-product.

If we think obsessively about what we want to happen we may become fearful that it won’t happen.  If we think obsessively about what we don’t want to happen, we may  fear that it will happen.  Either way, the result of putting ourselves emotionally into the future is perilous because the moment fear is birthed we begin to worry and fret about it.  Some of us worry and fret to the extent that we seek out situations or substances that will help us change the way we feel and help us temporarily bury the terror and the anxiety the fear is causing.

God tells us we are to live in the present moment and we must do that by faith.  Faith is nothing more than believing that God is going to do what he says he will do.  Scripture tells us he works everything for good, according to his purpose.  If we believe that, the future becomes unimportant.  It is in the present moment that we find God and that is what is important.

Personal unhappiness is usually rooted in a perception that we are not getting what we really need.  The problem is that most of our opinions on this matter are based on some fairly selfish attitudes that really translate into being upset about not getting what we WANT.  So, distinguishing between what we WANT, versus what we really NEED is critical.  If we believe we are getting what we need and get rid of the thinking that pursues what we WANT…then we can become grateful in any an all circumstances.

The problem with getting unhappy about not getting what we want is that it always involves our feelings and when we begin to base our happiness on the way we feel we are stepping into the deep waters or fear, resentment and a host of other negative emotions.  Then, all those negative feelings  begin to connect and they become self-perpetuating.  In other words, if we surrender to all those kinds of feelings then the way we view our lives becomes even worse!

The only way out of this spiraling, emotional disaster is to become grateful for the good things we have in our lives, regardless of our circumstances.  The simple solution is to just thank God for his grace and mercy and then make a gratitude list – a simple list of things that God has given us to produce the “peace that passes understanding”.  Even in the darkest moments of our lives there are things to be grateful for.

 If righteousness and love are the foundation of God’s character, justice must proceed out of that condition.  Perfect righteousness and perfect love produce perfect objectivity and the twisting of truth is impossible under those conditions.  Perfect objectivity that erupts from righteousness and love must support truth in every case.  Upholding truth is justice, and if justice is fostered out of perfect righteousness and love, then God’s justice is perfect too.

The final result of love, righteousness and justice is judgment.  Without judgment there can be no justice.  And without justice, righteousness and love cannot be preserved.  All of this creates a problem for humanity, because the Bible reveals that eternity itself is rooted and sustained by God’s perfect righteousness and endless love.  The perfect righteousness of God cannot tolerate unrighteousness in His presence or in the eternity He occupies.

Out of His perfect righteousness and love, which is fearless and unselfish, God has justly judged that unrighteousness will not be allowed to pollute his eternity.  Since human beings are fearful and selfish it means we are unrighteous.  Our unrighteousness bars us from being in God’s eternal kingdom.  This is a hard judgment for people to accept but it is the price of failing to achieve perfection.

I was addicted to alcohol for many years.    I believed alcohol was my friend.  It made me feel good and had the power to transform me in a way that I achieved a temporary release from  feelings of emptiness and fear.  No alcoholic has a problem with alcohol until it stops working, and it stops working when the transformation no longer happens.  When the anticipated transformation does not occur, the missed feeling of well-being is replaced with terror and a series of repetitive disasters that engulf the life of the victim.  That is the point that reality overcomes fantasy.  I maintained the the fantasy until I was 43 years old.  Then -  it almost killed me.

The reality that overtook my fantasy concerning alcohol included divorce, declining mental and physical health, and bankruptcy.  Each was served up to me in succession.  I reached the place of being at the end of myself and it was at that point I allowed Christ to take over my life.  I became convinced that my own efforts to run my life had failed and I needed  help.  In the 25 years that have passed in sobriety I have learned and accepted the truth that sin does not occur in a vacuum and it not only damages the life of the sinner but rubs off on many others along the way.   It is said the lives of 19 other people improve dramatically when one alcoholic quits drinking.

The unrepentant mind is a master of self-trickery.  When we are embroiled and engulfed in our sin we will think anything and do anything to justify the behavior and permit us to continue in the sin we believe we have to have.  In the end, it leads to destruction and the only hope is to escape the sin.  By human power it is impossible to escape sin.  That is why it was necessary for Christ to die for us and provide a way to overcome it.  Christ is the ultimate reality and when we first realize that truth,  our sin is exposed for what it is and we are crushed by the weight of it.  Then, by faith we believe and He overcomes.  The reality of Christ becomes the light of life and our sin is washed away.

1. That God will give me wisdom.
2. That God will show me the truth I need to accept.
3. That God will give me the power and grace to daily accept and apply His wisdom and truth in my life.

I am convinced that any person willing to sincerely pray this prayer on a daily basis and accept its results will begin to experience radical change in their life almost immediately.  However, I warn that such a prayer is not for the faint of heart.  God will employ methods of response that will be difficult and spiritually painful to experience.  He will use this prayer to help us learn how to crucify our self will and that is a matter of death.  It is a bloody business that eventually produces new life, but we must persevere through the pain that accompanies the acquisition of real truth and Godly wisdom.

Self must be crucified when it is actively raging.  To deal with self on any other basis is fruitless.  When self has calmed and the battle of the present has been lost, the opportunity for victory and grace will have passed.  The only thing left will be lingering resentment about what has happened, or fear of what may happen in the future.  Difficulty is in the present.  Self is in the present.  God is in the present.  Therefore, our problems and our solutions will only be found in one place:  the present!