This is part 2 in an incredibly challenging set of devotionals, taken from a sermon Ernie preached at the church I attended almost 20 years ago.
In this series, we are talking about the danger of hatching snake eggs. Last week in part 1, we considered the danger of angry and bitter thoughts, and how they can consume and destroy us.
Another snake egg we shouldn’t want to hatch is one of fear. There are too many kinds of fear to even begin to name, but all fearful thoughts are fatal if not cast out and killed. This kind of seed develops into one of the most poisonous of all snake eggs. The fear of failing, the fear of losing a loved one, …
Many people are hounded with thoughts about losing their husbands or wives. Divorce is so easy these days, and they live in the constant fear of: “will I be next?” Parents fear losing their children to drugs. They see this generation going to hell and wonder: “How can I keep my son or daughter from all this confusion? Will the sort of stuff that’s going on in schools today affect them? Will I wake up one day to discover my child is cold and bitter toward God?” Others fear for their job. “Will I lose my job? How will I live? how will I pay the bills? how will we eat?” Many fear never finding their place in life. “Will my life count? Will I be useful? I’m getting older, and I don’t seem to be making headway. Others are passing me by. Where am I going? What is my future?” For many there is the fear of a fatal illness. Every lump they feel, they fear it’s cancer.
Many Christians are sitting on a nest egg of fear, but this habit of harbouring fearful thoughts must stop before it destroys us. Forget all the formulas on how to win over fear. The Bible has no four-step program to overcome it, but God does tell you what to do when these fearful thoughts invade your mind. You are in a spiritual warfare situation, it is not a child’s game; it is a life and death issue.
God told Moses not to send the fearful into battle. Deuteronomy 20:8 says: “If anyone is fearful and fainthearted, Let him go home so that his brothers will not become disheartened too.”
God sees thoughts of fear as contagious and destructive. The fearful and fainthearted did not believe God’s Word. They doubted His promises of deliverance. God had said in Deuteronomy 20: 3: “‘Listen to me, all you men of Israel! Do not be afraid as you go out to fight your enemies today! Do not lose heart or panic or tremble before them. For the Lord, your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory!’”
God prepared His people by warning them that things would look scary and hopeless – that they would see horses and chariots, but he said: “Don’t be afraid because I am with you.” Has God ever failed you? Did He fail your parents or grandparents who lived through the War? Didn’t He bring out those who trusted Him through a wilderness? This is God’s answer to all who fear:
When the odds look hopeless, when you seem overwhelmed with no escape or sign of help, fear not for he is God, and he is with you to save you. Or in the words of the Psalmist: In the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock.” (Psalm 27: 5.)
The sinfulness of fear is that it accuses God of neglect. It robs us of confidence in His loving care and concern. The Bible tells us to cast out all fear, and to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of the Lord Jesus.
We can also have evil thoughts about other people. We know this is wrong and we try really hard to overcome them. We pray about it and we think that we have been delivered from it, but all of a sudden something triggers it off and they are back. The egg has hatched.
Why do so many who get delivered go back to their old habits? Why is the grip of sin not broken? Because when evil thoughts are planted or triggered by lying spirits, they are not immediately cast down. Let a single bad thought stay in the mind for even 30 seconds, and it will take hold. Soon it becomes an egg, with a snake waiting to be hatched. That is why God’s Word screams at you to cast out the wicked thought. Don’t take notice of it, don’t give it an inch.
Run to the Lord. Run to His Word. Cry out for a cleansing of the mind. Let the fear of God drive out every evil thought. Be persuaded that if the thought is entertained or conceived and allowed to grow into an egg, it will hatch, and the mind will be bitten and poisoned.
As soon as any evil thought comes to mind, the Christian must say: “This is not right. This is going against all I believe, This will destroy me.” The Christian must realize this thought is not natural. This is Satan himself. It is a lying spirit from hell, sent to deceive and destroy them. The Bible promises: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4: 7.) You must resist him in your mind by resisting the first thought of evil.