Spiritual Detox Anyone?

Every time I go to my computer whether I am searching Google, checking out Facebook, or looking for ideas on Pinterest, I cannot help but notice all the information out there on detoxing. Every where you look online there seems to be advertisements, videos, and recipes on cleansing or going on a 21-day detox. I am all for keeping our bodies healthy and in fact, I need to be much more disciplined than I am right now. After all, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, right? I do believe we should be good stewards of everything, including our bodies however, in Matthew Chapter 11 Jesus calls the crowed over and said to them..."Listen and understand. What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them." In verse 16 He goes on and says something that in today's standards would be offensive. "Are you still so dull?" He says this not to the crowed but to his disciples. He actually called those who are following Him dull because they were not listening. I wonder, how many dull followers of Christ do we have in the world today? I think we should regularly pray, "Lord, let not my ears be dull." Let's be sheep that hear our Shepherd's voice. Moving forward from that little side note..... Jesus goes on in verse 17, "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them."

As those you who have read my blogs know, I love to look up the meaning of words to get a deeper understanding. I sit here working on my laptop with my iPad next to me so that I can have more than one screen to work with. Here are the definitions of the word "dull". (Back to my little rabbit trail) It means to be lacking interest or excitement. Does that sound like you when you read or hear the Word of God. pr when you gather with other believers on Sunday? One word my son Kaleb uses frequently is "meh". I didn't even know if that was a real word until I just looked it up. It means ""expressing lack of interest or enthusiasm". It also means "uninspiring and unexceptional". The very word itself is certainly unexceptional.

It seems like so many of God's people have a "meh" kind of attitude toward Him until we get ourselves into trouble and need divine help. Then it's "God, help me! I'll do anything if you get me out of this mess!" I think one way we've come to have dull ears and a "meh" attitude toward the things of God by the attitudes of our heart and the words that come out of our mouth. When everything is going right it is easy to have a positive attitude.

Praising Him isn't a sacrifice. But when things go wrong, our view of God tends to get smaller and smaller while we magnify the situation or circumstance that we found ourselves in. Often, we end up seeking solution of the problem rather than seeking the Lord Himself.

Let me tell you a story, a modern day version about a man who lived long ago. This man feared the Lord and as a result, the Lord blessed him greatly in everything he did. He had a large and wonderful family. He was known as a great business man, strong in his community, and He had great value and worth, and in fact, He was the richest man around, and yet he feared the Lord. His ears were not dull and his attitude was not "meh" like many of the body of Christ around him. Yet, in spite of all this he ended up losing everything he had. His businesses, employees, and all his wealth. It was all stolen right out from underneath him without any warning. Then, if that wasn't bad enough, that very same day, every one of his adult children were killed in a freak accident. The great loss of this man made the headlines because he was so well known. In spite of all the loss and all the tragedy, He still feared the Lord. He praised the Lord in the midst of the storms of his life.

But, just when you would think things could not get any worse, this man became very ill. Now I can just imagine that his wife, after having lost all of her children, had to have been very bitter and angry with God. No more fancy house, no more fancy car, no more servants, her children are all dead and now her husband is extremely ill and she has to take care of him. What does she do? Instead of being supportive, she mocks his faith in God and tells him to go and die. Yet, even in being rejected by his wife at a very critical time, this man maintains his integrity at this point in the story. About a week later though, he begins tells his friends that he wishes he had never been born. In today's world we would call him suicidal. Though he never actually tried to commit suicide, he cursed the day he was born.

His brothers and sisters in the Lord came to encourage him "in the Lord" but their encouragement was no encouragement at all. They pointed their fingers at him and accused him of having great sin in his life and even in his grief over the loss of his sons and daughters, they had the audacity to blame their deaths on sin as well. So even his "well-meaning" friends turned against him. At this point he spent a lot of time at this point feeling very sorry for himself. All he could think about was "where is God in all of this?"

Have you ever asked yourself that question? In all that has happened to me, or happened to my loved ones, where is God? Why isn't He answering my prayers?

A a child I used to be so down and depressed that much like this man, I would ask God, "why did you even allow me to be born?" I was so blinded by my own loneliness and rejection by those that should have accepted, loved, and protected me, that I could not see the goodness of God. I could not see that in spite of the difficulties in my life, God was good and He had a plan. One of my favorite scriptures is Jeremiah 29:11. "For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." We often forget about the next verses: "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and bring you back from captivity."

Proverbs 4:23 says Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life. Proverbs 10:11 says the mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life. - is your mouth a fountain of life? What is coming out of it, life or death? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Luke 6:45 tells us that the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. The key to speaking life is in our heart. Do you have overwhelming circumstances in your life right now? If you do, the temptation is to assume that because of those circumstances that may not be any fault of your own, (though often we do cause our own misery by our own choices) that it's okay to feel the way we feel because God understands. "I have a right to feel the way I do!" It was almost 5 years ago when I got news of something that had affected my children in a way that no child should ever have to experience. We are still going through the healing process with them today. Now I can honestly tell you that by no means has there been a single moment where I have stood with my fists toward God in anger, saying "You caused this!" or "Where were you?" or "I am angry with you God!" But often it is the very subtle thoughts and attitudes, you know those little foxes that destroy the vine. I cannot tell you that there haven't been times of withdrawing from God in my grief. Sometimes it's just the quiet act of withdrawing because we don't feel love or gratitude in our hearts at that moment that sifts us. "Don't talk to me I am upset right now." "I have a right to be upset so I am just not going to praise you right now" is what we are saying to God when we have an attitude of anger, even if it be the tiniest bit in our hearts. My heart was saying "Though my life hasn't always been blameless, They didn't deserve this. They were innocent." And that is true, but in their suffering and in my own suffering, there have been times where it has been difficult to dwell on the goodness of God. Somehow, seeing the innocent suffer is the most difficult of all things to understand. But the Lord doesn't want us to dwell in our hearts on what we don't understand. He wants us to draw near to him and think about those things that according to Philippians 4:8 are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and anything that is excellent or praiseworthy. If out of the abundance of our hearts our mouths speaks and if out of the same mouth speaks blessings or curses (James 3:10), then it is safe to say that what we think about is very important for that is what will come out of our mouth. That is what will produce either life or death, blessings, or curses.

Remember the man I was telling you about? Did you recognize the story? Maybe these scriptures will give you a hint if you did not: "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Tell me if you understand who marked it's dimensions? Surely you know!" "Do you have an arm like God's and can your voice thunder like His? "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? Let him who accuses God answer Him!" "Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?" See, sometimes we blame God because we know that God is all powerful. Job's problem was not sin in his life as his friends accused him of. He trusted God to a point, but like the rest of us, He had a breaking limit. See the enemy will do everything he can to prove to you that God is not good. Don't believe the lie. No matter what it looks like, God is good. God doesn't allow bad things to happen to us in order to teach us a lesson but He does allow things to happen even to those who like Job are blameless. But at the end of the book of Job, it says that God blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first.

God made Job prosperous again and gave him twice

as much as he had before. I don't know about you but I am claiming that one! Job had 7 sons and three daughters. It says that there were not any women in the land as beautiful as his daughters. Job lived 140 years and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. He died old and full of years! God restored all that the enemy stole with interest!

Remember Matthew 11, it is what comes out of our mouths that defile us and what is in our hearts is what comes out of our mouths. I want to challenge you today. No matter what the enemy has come after in your life, whether it be finances, relationships, your children, your health, your peace, your joy, whatever it is.....I challenge you to detox from any thought that goes against the goodness of God. Simply do not come into agreement with it. It doesn't matter that you don't know how it's going to work out. Just trust that God does! As David wrote in Psalms 37:25, I as young and now I am old yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. It doesn't matter what it looks like. It doesn't matter what I see. I know that God is faithful. He is working behind the scenes for me! If that is all you can declare then declare that! In verse 30 it says The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongues speaks what is just. The law of God is in his heart and his feet do not slip. Skip ahead to chapter 39:1 and 2. I said, "I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence." But I was silent and still. (Job was silent for 7 days. It was when he stopped praising declaring the goodness of God that he grew depressed, wanting his life to be no more), not even saying anything good, my anguish increased.

It's not enough to be silent and simply not speak the

negative. Have you ever tried that with your spouse or children? It just doesn't work does it? It doesn't solve anything. We must in every situation speak to the goodness of God. Let His praise be continually in your mouth. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of our lips that confess his name. - Hebrews 13:15

Trust in Him and you will not be disappointed...that is....you will not miss your appointment or appointed time! Let's detox together! I dare you - 21 days to cleans our minds and hearts from every negative thought. 21 days to not dwell on the circumstances but dwell on how big, how great, how mighty, and how faithful is our God! Selah!!