"Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death."
James 1:13-15
I have watched with growing concern, the tone of conversations on social media, particularly around religion, politics and what they say to us about each other. While I am not here to endorse any political candidate, I must remind myself, as a person of faith, what my faith looks like on display.
I am a Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and died for the sins of the world. I believe that my acceptance of His sacrifice for my sins (and we all have sinned/do sin, by the way) creates the way to be in fellowship with God. Period. I'm not here to be persuaded otherwise. I believe that my faith in God calls me up to a level where I walk and talk as Jesus, as much as I can each day. That means I attempt to respond as He might to what I see and experience. I ask the Holy Spirit to sensitize me to those things in our world that confront the mind of Christ, so that I maintain my ability to respond to people and circumstances as Christ would.
I have been thinking about an old movie, "Needful Things," written by Stephen King. The movie revolves the action of a mysterious man who moves into a small town. The man opens a bookstore called Needful Things, which surprisingly, seems to have the thing you wanted most. The store owner doesn't want money but will give you this much desired thing for a "small favor." On the surface, the favors seem mischievous and not really harmful, but the favors are based on places of inner pain or conflict within individuals. For example, a little boy who 'does a favor' by throwing a rock through a window, ignites a physical conflict between two neighbors who have been feuding. Things like this start to happen all over the town, and in the crescendo of the movie one preacher is poised to kill another until they come to their senses. Their feud, like all the others, was based on what was happening inside of them and a "favor" instigated by the mysterious man.
The things needed were, for the most part, superficial -- the need to be right or 'right-er' than someone else, for example. These 'needful mindsets' can put us in the position of being manipulated spiritually and naturally. The whole point of this short blog is to encourage you to be aware of the programs running in the background of your mind that make you vulnerable to manipulation. If you aren't sure what's running in the background, I challenge you to pursue a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit will teach and reveal places of weakness and vulnerability that we minimize but can lead to big problems later.
Michele Aikens is CEO of ClearSight Coaching & Consulting, Inc. You can connect with her here:
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