Midst of Trouble; Day207

Psa 138:6  For though the Lord is high, yet has He respect to the lowly [bringing them into fellowship with Him]; but the proud and haughty He knows and recognizes [only] at a distance. [Prov. 3:34; James 4:6; I Pet. 5:5.]
Psa 138:7  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. [Ps. 23:3, 4.]
Psa 138:8  The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever–forsake not the works of Your own hands. [Ps. 57:2; Phil. 1:6.]

I had a conversation with one of my sister in Christ yesterday afternoon and the topic was storm recovery. (Sis, Psalm138:7 is just for you) How do you get out of the storm?  The storm we were talking about was the “storm of life”. These are the problems that she encounters in a regular basis for >3 years now.  She always face a big event every year.  Every year, she always have a misfortune or an annoying problem pop up.  My advice to her was to stand strong, strengthen her faith (the more), be patient, be in the Word, follow and obey the Word, be in the fellowship of the church (the Body of Christ) and then prayer.  The devil is real.  They are here just waiting to attack us and if we let our guard down, they are ready to attack us in every corner of our lives.  That is the very reason why studying the Word every morning right after waking up is a good idea. Always start the day with the Word, study it, digest it and remember the message all throughout the day and when the storm comes, you are already soaked up with positive thoughts and encouragement.  So how do we really protect ourselves from the devil? What are the devil’s attack look like?  How do I know that I am under attack? (This is from my own perspective.)

Examples:
1. When you are very healthy and you are stricken by a disease.
2. When your marriage is doing well and all of a sudden, a 3rd person invades your good marriage.
3. When you are doing good at work and then one day, you get an argument and you say the wrong word and you lose your job.
4. When you are feeling happy and all of a sudden (out of nowhere), you become depressed.

Examples: (not an attack)
1. When you get sick because you abuse your body with alcohol, smoking and drugs. (you did that to yourself)
2. When you get a speeding ticket doing 75 miles per hour (you did that to yourself, God placed the speed limit for our safety)
3. When you become overweight and your arteries are clogged, (you did that to yourself)
4. When you surf the web at work (abusively) and you lost your job.
5. When you are lazy at work and your boss gave you a bad review.
6. When you allow your kids to party all night and he/she gets into an accident.
7. When you stay up all night and come to work tired and you make a mistake at work and lost your job.
8. When you open your mouth at a wrong time and you get into an argument.
9. When you gossip on someone and then you get into a fight.
OK… you got it.  You can add your list now…..

5 Senses Check
1. Sense of Touch-stay away from this temptation, when you are so close to someone other than your spouse, stay away (better yet, don’t put yourself in this position)
2. Sense of Taste-food, don’t engage too much.
3. Sense of Smell-same thing of taste, temptation sometimes starts here. (ie. Being in a bar puts you in great danger, you can smell trouble here, zero bar=zero temptations)
4. Sense of Sight-stay away from unproductive, non-learning, non-encouragement tv shows. Sometimes these shows convey fears and emotional burdens. Also, viewing inappropriate pictures or movies belongs to this category. (Men, if you want to lose interest of your wife, start looking at beautiful women on the web; I’ve seen this a few times). Also, engaging too much Facebook/MySpace pictures from old flames can start a personal disaster. 
5. Sense of Sound-audit what you are listening. making sure the lyrics are not against righteousness. Other attacks can come from here using our mouth as the source ie. saying the wrong words, using the wrong word.  If the word you are about to say does not help/encourage/build your neighbor, just save it to yourself.  I’ve seen many personal disasters coming from this.

MIT (Most Important Task)
1. 10Mile Time Trial
2. 1K Swim
3. Yard work
4. Laundry
5. Ideastorm KPIV/POF CL1,2,3

Day207
0000, Sleep
0100, Sleep
0200, Sleep
0300, Sleep
0400, Breakfast; journal;
0500,
0600, 10Mile Time Trial
0700,
0800,
0900, Celebration Church
1000, Celebration Church
1100,
1200, Ideastorm
1300, Ideastorm
1400, Ideastorm
1500, Ideastorm
1600,
1700,
1800, Yard work
1900, 1K Swim
2000, Watch Tour de France (DVR)
2100,
2200,
2300,
2400, Sleep