Do you ever listen to music while you drive? Well personally I do. To be honest, when traveling to and from various different locations, I predominately get my musical download of songs from listening to them in the car. What I find is that even when I’m not paying attention to the song or the words, is that they have more of a lasting impression on me than I may have initially thought.
Many times later in the day, I find myself singing,
whistling, humming, drumming, and any other possible way that reenacts a
portion of a specific song that I may have heard. Pretty weird huh? Who would
have thought that not intentionally committing something to memory would have even
a mild effect on a one’s life?
But it does.
You see, music isn’t the only thing that has the potential
to influence someone despite the fact that one may not be focusing on it
consciously. Anything from the movie playing in the background when you’re
doing your homework to the two people whispering in the corner of the room has the
potential to say or do something that may stick to us whether we like it or
not.
Now, if something that one doesn’t pay attention to has the
potential to affect someone’s life, even to the smallest degree, imagine
something that someone purposely tries to practice or memorize or apply to
their life.
Whether positive or negative, those things could determine the
severity of the outcome that is sure to ensue.
For me, though the outcome resulted in some harmless singing,
whistling, humming and drumming, amongst other things, it was something that I
wasn’t conscious of until certain situations arose, in which case, what I
thought wasn’t even in the game made its way to the surface.
It’s like chess (And I’m only referencing chess because very
recently I played a game, and I lost in just four moves. Four. You know who you
are). A pawn isn’t the most spectacular piece on the board. A pawn is often
overlooked because it can’t do much compared to its fellow chess pieces, like a
rook, (castle looking piece) that can move vertically or horizontal the entire
length of the board, unless there is a piece in its way; or a bishop, (The one
with the chip in it) that like the rook, can move as many spaces as it wants,
except it can only move diagonally and has limited movement depending if other
pieces are blocking its way as well; or a knight (horse looking piece) that can
move uniquely in an L shape of two spaces horizontally and one space vertically
or vice versa; or a queen, (Crown looking piece next to the king) that
essentially combines the ability of both the rook and the bishop.
But not a pawn.
On its first turn a pawn can move forward one or two spaces,
and after that initial move it can only move forward one space at a time. If
there is another piece in front of it, it cannot move. It’s stuck there until
that piece moves or is removed. In order to eliminate another piece from the
game, a pawn has to go and can only kill diagonally one space. So based on this
‘basic’ explanation of chess and about each pieces respective abilities,
compared to everything else, pawns are pretty much useless, right?
Oh dear, they are not.
You see, if one doesn’t keep his or her eye on a pawn, and
allows it to infiltrate their territory and reach their end of the board, it
becomes something much bigger, and much scarier. Unlike the other pieces, the
pawn has a special ability. Once a pawn reaches the enemies end of the board
successfully, it can then become either a rook, a bishop, a knight, or yes,
even a queen.
How could something that seemed so insignificant develop
into the obvious dangers that we had tried so hard to avoid?
This is how the enemy works.
The enemy takes on many shapes, and sometimes some of those
shapes could be the very things in our lives that seem miniscule enough to
overlook. It is when we overlook those things that we actually give sin the opportunity to reach its desired capacity; and once it acquires enough force, the enemy exerts
that force in our direction.
The more we allow the pawns in our lives to make their way
unto our side of the board, the more we are allowing them to infiltrate our
lives which could result in detrimental circumstances.
It is for this reason that we have to constantly be alert in
our walk with Christ and make sure that we keep those things in check (see what
I did there).
It sort of reminds me of a lion.
A lion that is far away doesn’t seem like much of a threat.
But, if we continue to disregard that lion, and allow it to creep up to us
until it’s close enough to attack, the consequences could be crippling.
With that being said, I find it perfectly ironic the bible
describes the enemy as a lion.
First Peter Chapter five verse eight reads,
“8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls
around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (New
International Version.1Pe.5.8).
This is satan’s strategy.
The enemy tries to downplay sin, to make it appear as if it
is something insignificant that could not impact or harm us. Then the
diminutive nothingness that we allowed into our lives gradually and eventually
begins to control and consume us and the very thing that we once thought that
we had a hold on, now has a hold on us, so strongly in fact that we start to
contemplate when the switch was flipped on us in the first place.
Don’t allow the enemy anywhere near you, no matter how far
into the background he says that he is. The enemy is a liar and being in the
background is still being there no matter how far or how near.
Do not give the enemy a foothold. If there is something that
has even the smallest inkling to impact your life in the negative which may
have the potential to negatively influence someone else as well, rebuke it, run
from it, and seek Jesus.
In Genesis Chapter thirty-nine verses six through twelve
read,
So
Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did
not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was
well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of
Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he refused. “With me
in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in
the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in
this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you,
because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin
against God?” And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to
bed with her or even be with her. One day he went into the house to
attend to his duties, and none of the household servants were inside. She
caught him by his cloak and said, ‘Come to bed with me!’ But he left his cloak
in her hand and ran out of the house (New International Version. Ge.39.6-12).
Sometimes, like Joseph, though we may
be on fire for God and seek for nothing more than to please him and to bring
him honor and praise, we permit certain things in our lives that we should have
either expelled from or removed ourselves from the equations that seem to have
an absolute solution resulting only in our downfall.
The hold that Joseph thought that he
had on the situation eventually had a hold on him. That situation, in the form
of Potiphar’s wife, had a hold so tightly around his cloak, that when he
decided to run he had to leave without it.
We all have the opportunity to leave
before things turn for the worse. The moment that we take notice of something
that is trying to take us out, is the moment when action should take place. Putting
up with something, and pretending that it is going to go away is not the only
choice that we have to make. Although Joseph decided to stick around when
he should have ran sooner, he did eventually run away.
He wasn’t running because he was afraid, rather he was
running in order to Honor Potiphar, his wife and most importantly God.
Though circumstances for Joseph didn’t end in the best way
for him right away, he continued to obey God and eventually God placed Joseph,
via the Pharaoh, over the land of Egypt.
Now I’m not saying that we are going
to be in charge of anything, or receive a promotion like the one Joseph
received, but when we run from the enemy and hold on to the promises of God, he
will bring those promises into fruition in our lives.
Don’t forfeit the guaranteed promises of the Lord, no matter
how long they may take to come true, for the quick empty promises of the enemy.
Instead of hearing certain songs or people, or TV shows or
movies or whatever else that is inadvertently feeding us and speaking to us in
the negative while they “play” in the background, play things that inspire.
Play things that show others Christ in your life. Play things that show
the goodness of God and how he is all around is us, ready to embrace us with
his love.
When we run from the sin and the temptations of the enemy,
not only are we running away from the pitfalls and traps that he has set up for
us, but we are running to the one that seeks to guard us from them. To the one
that has never stopped and will never stop running after us.
So run. Run to the King.
For without the King the game is Lost. Without the King we
are lost. Without the King our lives are lost.
But with the King we are found. With the King we are
redeemed, and with the King we are protected and loved.
Chase after the King, because unlike chess where we are supposed
to defend the King, this King, the true King, Jesus is always defending us.
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your
presence? If
I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side
of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (New International Version.
Ps.139.7-10)
“The Lord will keep
you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both
now and forevermore” (New International Version Ps.121:7-8).
