In Part 1 I shared some of the need for discernment and research if we are to have 2020 vision on some of the current news filling our screens.
Here in this 2nd part are the 5 words of warning and 7 words of hope that I have chosen to help me keep focus and have proper vision-correction in this year of '2020'… maybe they will encourage your heart too…
First up are …5 words/concepts which I see filling our media but are on the side of destruction rather than love, words that alert us as to what to avoid, words of warning about dangerous vision problems:
1. A few 'Facts' - Fake news is normally believed because a bit of truth we can't deny is usually present. I heard recently a reminder that the worst lies are those with a sliver of truth - like its true that there are many fires burning in Australia, homes and lives being lost, smoke filling the air, towns being ravaged or destroyed, fire-fighters exhausted etc….facts like Victoria Falls is currently having less water flow over it. Just because there is a sliver of truth, doesn't mean everything from that source or in that story is true or that the 'truth' is being used in a right way to point to more truth, or if it is being taken out of context for a completely different agenda.
Partial truth that lacks context and the 'full' story can be just as much a form of bondage and destruction as outright lies, if it keeps us from full liberating truth. As ACL's Martyn Iles recently helpfully reminded people - we need to be diligent to verify facts we hear, and make sure we do due diligence in making sure we get the accuracy and wider context correct. If I am to be honouring God, it is never detached from loving and seeking truth and upholding truth.
We need to remember that from the garden of Eden to the temptations of Jesus and onto the year 2020, Satan is adept at using some truth in order to present his lies with the aim of taking us on a road far away from truth.
We need to be alert and discerning.
2. 'Fear' - then I see a few facts being used to heighten the drama and fuel fear - not just fear of the present danger of present fires, but using it to promote a particular response to 'climate change' and to fuel fear of future calamity and apocalyptic disaster.
What builds fear of people and things around us or fear of our tomorrows (or even todays), destroys faith and trust in God. Worry and anxiety are also forms of fear, and things we are told in Scripture not to do (Phil 4:6, Matt 6:25-34). Anything that just builds fear in us regarding the future and doesn't point us to God and his care and our rest and peace in him, needs serious questioning.
It's doubly concerning when we also may not consider the effect on children who are even more vulnerable to immobilising fear in the face of media reports. How we handle this has implications for scriptual warnings to not cause children to stumble (Matthew 18:6).
3. Misplaced 'faith' - yes faith - religious people aren't the only ones who have faith - we all have faith! The issue is in what or in whom, do we place our faith?
When our faith displaces God and replaces it with human beings, and we see ourselves as the controllers of our universe and the ones who have ultimate wisdom on how to 'change' our futures, and we feel the control of our future is on our shoulders, we live dangerously.
Even as Christians we need to check where our faith is - is it in God who created and rules the universe, or is it in people's interpretation of their limited view of what is happening in the universe? Have we wandered into misplaced faith arising from false fear due to outright lies or inadequate facts?
4. 'Fanaticism' - We need to be careful, because fear and misplaced faith breeds a tunnel-vision focus built on a false and unsteady foundation, that excludes space or willingness to hear or explore the whole truth. It feeds impulsive reactive responses and extreme perspectives. It consumes time and focus that we should be using for other things including discovering the truth.
Fear doesn't think clearly, enquire and observe widely, process rationally/logically. We can fail to properly or promptly enquire of God himself. Fear can fuel the 'I am right and you are wrong' mentality. It wants to protect our own opinion or the opinions of the group we want to stay accepted by or feel significant/important being a part of, rather than acknowledge that none of us are all-knowing and we desperately need to hear from the One who is all-knowing.
5. 'Fighting' - points 1-4 don't help peace and dialogue and discussion, and don't breed logical careful thinking and listening or politeness or kindness or love. Fighting 'for' what a person believes to be reality, becomes a short step from fighting 'with' one another.
While peace in the midst of conflicting ideas and rejection of truth may not be fully possible, we are still commanded to as much as relies on us, to live peaceably with others (Romans 12:18). Just as a false peace is not a badge of honour, neither is conflict always a badge of honour.
We can still strive for peace that values others, listens to them and seeks to honour them in the midst of disagreement. Oh, how our world mis-understands this and needs it demonstrated.
But I am reminded how easily I can be tempted to stray into these danger zones, and it's only God who can keep me from these dangers.
[On an exam paper an 'F' is a 'Fail'. The above indicates a 'Fail' in God-honouring living, so the above 5 words begin with an 'F'.However, a 'P' on an exam paper is a 'Pass', and a way through a mountainous barrier is a 'Pass'...and so the next 7 words all start with a 'P' - just as a help and reminder of what 20/20 God-honouring vision should look like.]
On the Other hand, I am reminded that God wants to have me share in His perspective - His vision for my life, the world and his purposes. And that vision elicits a very different collection of words…
1.'Perspective' - when we hear 'facts' we often don't realise that every human being interprets facts according to their perspective. As author and biblical counselor Paul Tripp once said, we are all 'interpreters'.
When we interpret data (even facts) and life around us, we filter it through our perspective and previous data or experience. We need to recognise that 'facts' we hear are coming through other people's filters. This affects how selective they are with the facts, how they relay the facts and what interpretation they add to the facts. We need to get a wide base of knowledge, study the data, test the facts (Deut 19:15), weigh the facts (Proverbs 18:17) and ensure we think about the other person's filters, and we don't only listen to one human perspective.
There is only one who is all-knowing and we need to align and interpret according to God alone. This is why we need to 'renew our minds' according to truth and in perspective with the reality of God's existence, authority, power, love and how that impacts our eternity.
We need to weigh up what we hear in the light of his Word, his Truth - The Truth. We need to make sure we are believing Truth and interpreting life through the lens of Truth.
2.'Promise' - when I/we look at circumstances in our world or need to make decisions for our life, we need to do so in keeping with the promises of God's presence, authority and power.
*God created the world and he will judge the world.*He knows best how to guide us to manage this earth well.*He will never command us to do something or expect something of us, that he is not able to enable.*He will never leave or forsake us. When he said we are to love him and others and be 'keepers' (managers) of this earth, it is because he is willing to teach and guide us as to how to do it.*But we will never do it well when we put our own desires and greed (whether financial, or political popularity) or fears before our service and honour of him.*Nor will we be able to do it well if we are worshipping the creation above the Creator or ignoring his wisdom and cut off from his Life.*Sin will warp my sense of right and wrong, and lead me away from wisdom and into self-destrucing foolishness.
But...His promises do not fail. The seasons will continue and life on earth will continue until God ends the world and judges it. I don't see us being judged for bringing an end to the world through climate change, but we will need to give account as to how we have managed and taken care of the world God has given us.
3.'Power' - as we look to the future, humans don't have ultimate power.
The sustaining of the earth's existence and humanity's existence is not on our shoulders. God is the one with ultimate power, both to sustain the creation he made as well as to judge according to his will. We are instead called to live in obedience to and in accordance with his will.
While we have responsibility to take care of this world as stewards of it, we are answerable to a higher power - God himself as he has revealed to us he is, in his Word. We need to recognise that apart from God himself, we are nothing, know nothing and can do nothing.
We need to submit to his power, align with his power, and enjoy the results of that.
4.'Patient perseverance' rather than panic - it is easy to respond in panic to perceived threats or uncertainties whether big or small, momentary or extensive, but 20/20 vision needs steady, calm, patient perseverance.
Panic blinds us and blinkers our vision and can lead to unwise, impulsive, un-informed or ill-informed choices, but careful, wise analysis requires more patience than hurrying. It requires being willing to both calmly pause in the short term and to persevere for the long haul, and not rely on panic's adrenaline rush. It requires self-control. Panic at its core is a fear that knows the problem is bigger than we can handle, but fails to look in trust to the One who is bigger than the problem.
I know how easily I can be prone to panic. But panic in all its forms, from daily worry to high-level immobilization, robs us of clear-headed thinking, of energy and of peace. Here in Botswana, locals talk about worry as 'thinking too much'! We can use up our energy on thinking too much and have nothing left for what God actually wants us to be doing!
As Corrie TenBoom said 'worry is like a rocking chair, it takes your time but gets you no-where'!
How Satan loves to steal my time, and focus and energy and make it all worthless - and in fact destructive for my life and the lives of those around me!
5.'Preparation' - God doesn't say we should never think about the future, or ignore it, as the antidote to worry. No, in fact Christians should be the most bold, courageous and calmly willing to embrace the future, because we are the ones who should be free to look the future in the face, but move forward, entrusting it to the Lord.
Scripture doesn't tell us not to plan, or study, or think about the future and consider the consequences of actions, but it tells us to do it in the restful peace of leaving the final choices to God, (Proverbs 16:9) to trust his purposes and be at rest in his loving care, knowing that we live not for the temporal but for the eternal.
In fact lack of consideration or preparation for our eternal future is foolish, dangerous and the worst thing we can do. 20/20 vision should give us perspective in which to place all that happens so as to look at it from God's eternal point of view.
It means we know we need a Saviour, but therefore we can prepare with hope and with joy and with peace, which should shine as light in our world.
6.'Prayer' - prayer is the act of expressed dependance on God.
We don't just pray because we should, but because we need God,
not just because it is a command, but because its our very life-line in our relationship with him.
It is the expression of 'I can't' but 'He can'.
It is less of me and more of Him.
It is seeking his will not my own.
It is waiting for his timing, and trusting his wisdom.
It is thanking Him that He is in control, not me, and that what I don't understand or fathom, He knows.
It is the assurance that nothing is too big or overwhelming for Him.
It is acknowledging Him in all our ways (Prov 3:5-6) and believing that He cares.
There was a kids song I learnt when I was young that has stayed with me…
'Why worry when you can pray,trust Jesus he'll be your stay,don't be a doubting Thomas,rest fully on His promise,Why worry, worry, worry, worry, when you can pray?'
7. 'Peace' - Jesus is the Prince of Peace, so if news and information is told in such a way as to stir up fear of anything other than a holy confident faith-filled, peace infused, fear of God himself, then we need to be aware that it is either false information or told with a false perspective.
We should also be careful not to over-dramatise what we share with others either in conversation or social media that would cause others to have misplaced false fear - 20/20 spiritual vision should point people toward the peace found in Jesus.
We might acknowledge the reality of 'scary' times, but not because they are fearful for us as Christians but because without Christ they should fill a person with fear - fear that drives them to the One who is greater than what brings them fear.
So if we know Christ, we should be showing forth lives filled with peace that passes understanding and draws others to the Saviour.
Peace is also a fruit of the Spirit - a fruit that others should see in our lives. If our lives are fearful, worrying, and anxious, we are not only grieving the Holy Spirit, we are quenching him by preventing peace and joy from being seen in and through our lives. We add to our stress, strain our bodies and health and miss out on the wonderful joy and peace God wants to give us. Additionally we fail to be a proper witness/ambassador of Christ in the world.
Jesus wants to bless us with peace and bless others through us with peace. In a world of chaos, uncertainty and fear, our lives should be havens of calm and peace, speakers of peace, workers of peace, beacons of peace.
These points are confronting and challenging, but they are also encouraging truths.
We can rest securely in Christ as we look out into our world.
We can trust God's promises and confidently know and show forth peace.
I certainly know that my own sinful nature and Satan's efforts often tempt me to tread the path of 'Failure' to honour God rather than the tread the 'Pass' through the mountains of trouble and trials that I face.
Let us be people who rest in the truth of God's promises and power, act with godly perspective, turn to God in prayer and live as examples of peace.
But I give thanks in this year of 2020 that Christ has done all that is needed for vision correction so that as I learn to depend more on him and allow his life to live in and through me, that I can grow in enjoying the 20/20 vision that honours God and allows me to both enjoy Him more and more effectively be His witness in this world.
When we fall into the traps of the 'F' first options and don't intentionally choose the 'P' second options we open ourselves up to believing lies, that lead to worthless or damaging behaviour which can have destructive and eternally damning effects.
In this year why don't you join me in seeking to live in the clarity and joy of 20/20 vision in this year of 2020 and beyond!
