What is your default reaction when something arises? Everyone of us has a default setting we go to. When we are tired it is really obvious what the default is, if we are willing to look at ourself and not blame someone else. External situations and circumstances rise all the time. External situations come and go to reveal to us what our default go to setting is. For some it is worry; for others it is anger; still for others it is something to medicate them (food, drugs, alcohol, pornography). We do whatever it takes to get out of the external situation that just disrupted our internal world. We all do it.
If we are willing to listen to ourselves, watch ourselves and truly pay attention to ourselves, this is the first step in being discerning, discerning ourself, not someone else. I always smile when someone tells me they are discerning, because I want to ask, are you self-aware? Do you have self-control? Do you hear what you say more than what anyone else says? This is what we are called to do, discern ourselves or as Jesus said, “Take the plank out of our own eye so we can see the speck in our brothers eye.”
The reason I bring this up today is because I found myself praying out of anxiety this morning. Nothing happened, no one said anything, it was just a spirit that wafted into the room and tried to attach to my soul and cause me to panic pray about something that is actually nothing. I felt the anxiety, I could hear it in the sound of my voice. Then I opened to Psalm 35 my prayer partner this morning and the Lord calmed the storm immediately. “Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; Fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of buckler and shield And rise up for my help. Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me; Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.” My issue was a spirit not a person and when I prayed “Say to my soul, I Am your salvation”, swoosh, peace came rushing in like a river and all anxiety flushed out in an instant.
We cannot control what comes into the room, whether a physical person or a spirit, but whatever alters our peace is an enemy and we must say to our soul, “I AM is my salvation!” David encouraged himself in the Lord, this is how we do that, we tell our soul “I Am is your salvation!” Peace was restored in a suddenly second and tears fell from my eyes as I leaned into the arms of the One who has been saving my soul for years now. He is Savior every moment of every day, say to your soul, “I Am is your salvation!”
Lisa Great 