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DEVOTIONAL

Damn the Torpedoes

Posted on May 31, 2006

“and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5b

Have you ever wondered about the spiritual torpedoes that are aimed and fired at the Christian? I wonder just how many of those missiles are actually blanks that the enemy uses to try to get us to react and be distracted by? I think it’s safe to say that some of those torpedoes are real and others, many others are just not real at all.

The movie “A Beautiful Mind” documents John Nash’s battle with mental illness. The Princeton mathematician suffered from schizophrenia most of his adult life. The film portrays how Nash learned to question the reality of illusionary people who appeared to him often, and seemed as real to him as your spouse or the friend you visited last night. Just as important, he learned to deny their negative predictions of doom, and refused to accept their guidance as valid for his life. His example is encouraging to all of us. Nash went on to win the Nobel Prize in economics and gives further hope to anyone who suffers with this debilitating disease and condition.

We too, may suffer fears that bear little relation to the truth, yet are still effective in shutting us down and holding us back from taking a step with our life that would succeed. We may be tortured by second thoughts in a decision, even though we have prayed, thought it through carefully and have substantial reason to move forward. These are ‘blanks’ that the enemy is firing at us.

The perceptions we fall into can limit us just as greatly as psychotic delusions did in Nash’s case. We have to come to grips with the way our mind and the devil are capable of misleading us, then make our best efforts at these points, to separate fact from illusion and deception.

Just as crucial, we need to learn to question perceptions influenced by runaway emotions, and refuse to let them be our final take on reality. I’m not talking about mind power or mind over matter techniques here. No, we need to, by the help and discipline of the Holy Spirit, take our emotional state strongly into account in all our decisions and filter out assumptions induced too easily by anger, fear, or distraught feelings.

As we submit our fears and emotions to the Holy Spirit daily, we will begin to see with the clarity and focus that we need to fulfill our destiny. So, damn those torpedoes, full steam ahead!

Rick D’Orazio
Conference Pastor

 

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