“Do not fear the one who tries to kill the body but can’t kill the soul.” (Matthew 10:28)
We are in a REAL battle for our existence right now. Movies are made of this, though now I believe those movies were made to PROGRAM us for this time!
Christ Himself says we are to beware the enemy of our souls, because he can kill the body but can’t kill the soul. But boy is he trying!
Humanity is fighting. All the scourges we’ve learned about over time (which – are they true? Did they organically pop up? Were they manufactured? What do you mean, “manufactured?”) are converging on humanity for such a time as this. What will we do with it? Will they be successful? Not if we have anything to say about it!
How do we not let them kill the soul? We’re trying hard to keep our bodies alive, but man, are these mongers going after our souls! How are you fortifying your soul? Have you noticed all these things? What kinds of questions do you have? How do you get them answered? What do you do when faced with the terror that just seems to come out? What’s going to happen? We have so many questions.
I wager that one of the things this enemy feeds off is our fear. Why do I say that? One instance for every day of the year, 365 times, the Bible cautions against fearing. That’s SUPER comforting to me. Makes it seem like besides physical elimination, FEAR can lead to us losing our strength, leading to the potential of losing our spirit. Jesus advises the disciples in Matthew 10:28 to ultimately fear God, who can destroy the soul and body in hell. Ultimately, we are NOT to fear man or any evil works, but to fear God. That gives us a SUPER different vantage point than I think most of us have been taking. Try this on for size – look OVER the ensuing battle TO God. I know it sounds weird but remove yourself from the fray. Look to God for strength. Reminds me of the time in Exodus when God told Moses to raise the staff and have the Israelites look at it. When they looked at the staff, they were ok. When they took their eyes off it, chaos ensued.
What does this mean for us now?
Let’s turn to our opening verse for this blog post. We are focused on the wrong thing. Many of us are so focused on the “one who can kill the body” we have sold out to temporal things and forgotten the One who holds our lives in HIS hands. We have seen in the past that God allowed the devil to torment Job. We also see that God sustained Job and restored his belongings twofold, and his family size. We have been so focused on current events I wonder how we would fare in God’s consideration of our restoration (ignoring God’s infinite mercy, if He treated us the way we treat each other). What can we take from that? Let’s have a LONG GAME approach to our lives and focus on the One who holds our souls and bodies in His hands.
If we focus on the Lord (Isaiah 26:3) and make His renown our aim (Isaiah 26:8), then we demonstrate the long game in our attitudes and actions!
In addition, we cry out to the LORD (2 Chronicles 7:14), then He WILL hear from heaven and heal our land!
Our FOCUS is what matters to the LORD. We can cry out to Him, but He wants our attention focused on HIM and not on our circumstances. He cares about us deeply, and He is ultimately super interested in ensuring that He is glorified, honored, focused on, trusted, submitted to, and humbled before! And He will in His infinite mercy restore us and grant us both eternal and temporal blessing.
So, we note in this blog post that my focus shifted from being concerned about the one who can kill our bodies but not our souls, to being fearful of the LORD, the ONE who holds our bodies and souls in His hands. Jesus makes it clear that He knows who we are regarding and where we are focusing. It is supremely important that He takes our focus!
So, what do we do about our temporal concerns? Doesn’t God care?
OF COURSE!!!
Matthew 6:33 and Matthew 11:28 demonstrate a compassionate and all-knowing and capable God. Focus on HIM and pour out your hearts to Him. He knows your burden; He wants you to turn to Him and cry out to Him! He loves you and is ready to uphold you with His righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10).
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