That swinging pendulum

The Christian is the true schizophrenic.  We have 2 natures and they will never get along.  They will never reconcile their differences.  They will never learn to put their agendas aside and take one for the team.

The Christian has 3 enemies, the World, the Flesh, and the devil.  They are closely intertwined, and often hard to tell what is the root cause of the trouble I am in.

The devil is the accuser of the brethren.  Sometimes what he accuses us of, we actually are guilty of.  At times I am lazy, angry, moody, carnal, worldly, full of wrath, bitterness, pride, lust, greed, envy.  My flesh wants me to live there.  My spirit says put that junk aside, man! You are saved! You are bought with a price!  Your flesh may like it but God doesn't!  Get your heart right! Get right with God!

I joke that I bounce between revival and suicidal.  In one day.  Several times a day at times.  The world has their diagnoses for chronic christian conditions.   When we give into the flesh, the battle is on, and we act like schizophrenics.  We don't need medication, we need mediation!  On the Word of God!!! The bible says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.  When we don't act in faith and get stuck looking at the overwhelming events in our lives we get depressed.  When we look inward we get depressed, when we get stuck on ourselves we get discouraged by what we find.   We don't need a psychiatrist, we need the Great Physician.  And the Bible says Jesus is a wonderful counselor as well. 

Then we get an unexpected check in the mail and get on a high.  Then the unexpected bill falls out of the grocery ad circular.  And we are on a low.  And we are fasting and going through withdrawal of our soda addiction, and then we talk ourselves into an all liquid fast, and down a Coke, and have a high again.  Then the sugar goes out of our bloodstream and we crash and are depressed again.  So we go get a bowl of ice cream.  And since we just crashed our fast, we might as well now eat.  And then we make a sandwich.  Of the kind a can of Coke sure would go good with it.

I am a mess at times.  They don't last long, but I go from really seeing God do wondrous things and I am so thankful for everything I have in one breath and want everyone saved to experience what I have.  And then the next day I am irritable for no reason and hate the world and could care less if they go to hell. 

Am I the only one up and down?

Elijah calls down fire from heaven in one verse.  A chapter later Jezebel wants to kill him and he is whining beside a juniper tree wishing he was dead.  Peter says I will die for you, Jesus.  Next chapter he is denying him 3 times.  That encourages me because I think that is normal Christianity.  Prone to wander Lord I feel it.  This stupid flesh comes back when we least expect it and it is capable of anything.  Except helping our Christianity.  We need to see this is a war and not let a defeat kill you.

Is it any wonder God can use any of us?   The world and the world's religions think that God will save everyone.  If you truly get to know God, you will start to see how wicked and selfish and deceitful and hell deserving you really are.  And you will wonder why he would save any of us!!! But that doesn't get me to quit.  It makes me in awe of how good he is and it makes me desperate to conform to his image and stop being the useless cement I was before I was saved.  And now be clay in the potter's hand.

I still can get suicidal, but it doesn't last.  Praise the Lord.  I recognize it and see the lie that it is.  I used to wallow in defeat for weeks when I would get down and out.  Now as I walk along on my Christian walk, and I accidentally fall in the slough of despond, I won't want to wallow in it.  I get out, I grab a bible, and I run to God instead of my sinful comforts that only caused more problems. 

The up and down spiritually syndrome.

Is it from Satan?

Is it from sugar?

From stress?

From SIN?

Just an "out of SEASON"??

too focused on STUFF?

That we are not soulwinning?

To much SELF centeredness?

Not being SINGLE minded?

Or is it simply not SEEING Jesus in our Situation?

(originally I was going to say not seeing Jesus in our SIRcumstances.)

What I see is I can over analyze the WHY IS THIS GOING ON? and GOD WHAT DID I DO WRONG? to the point of paralysis by analysis.

Or I just not justify it, confess it, and run to God no matter the reason I am experiencing it.

No matter the reason for it, only he can fix it.

And his grace is sufficient for thee.  I cannot handle it, but the Bible says when I am weak, then am I strong.

His strength is made perfect in my weakness.

Oh, how I hate to see how weak I really am.

I am just a weakling but I am connected to all the strength I could ever need. 

That dependency is how he wants it.

Oh, but how much our flesh wants to do it ourselves.

The arm of flesh will fail you, but I am thankful God not only puts up with our antics, and our frantics, but he loves us.  In spite of us!

Our God really is an awesome God.