Stop the madness!

So I read this translation of this verse that I haven't seen before and read into it something entirely new and fresh.

Other versions are translated, "What can mere mortals to do me?" or "What can man do to me?"

But when I read this version, "What can flesh do to me?" a light bulb went off.

Most people, including Christians, walk in the flesh, not the Spirit.  So if I experience their flesh coming after me, so to speak, I need to stop short and ask myself, what can their flesh do to me?

Plenty!  That is, if I am not walking in the Spirit myself.

Remember, no good thing dwells in the flesh.  So it is like only yucky stuff coming at you when others come against you for no real reason.  

I don't think most Christians are sensitive enough as to whether or not they are walking in the Spirit or walking to gratify the flesh.  Oh they may want to walk in the Spirit because they know that they are supposed to, but how many do you know that actually do?

Others' fleshly behavior or comments toward me will bring out of me one of two responses:  flesh for flesh (respond to them in the same way they treated me, although it is not the right response); or Spirit for flesh (respond in love no matter how they treat me).

I have been in a couple of very trying circumstances for the past several years now.  I started off great - for years I would return love for hate, forgive quickly and easily, etc.

But lately, I find myself regressing.  The injustice of it all is really chapping my hide!

How could I regress from Spirit to flesh?  Why the change?  I feel the worse for it, but that doesn't seem to stop me.

I feel the need to point out the other person's error.  Ha!  Isn't God up to this challenge?  God is God!  He can set someone straight in two shakes of a lamb's tail!

But hands off for me.  I must take my hands off the situation and let God be God in it.  He takes longer than I'd like.  But then in His great mercy, He gives my antagonists time to repent.  Sometimes, He acts swiftly.  But most of the time, He takes a while.

How much do we want to see justice done to those who wrong us?  If our flesh rears its ugly head, if it is used to getting its own way, like a petulant child, then we may smart to prods in the flesh more readily than respond in the Spirit.

Oy.

So what's a girl to do?

A good friend of mine used to tell me, "Happy dying!" I can laugh at the sentiment, but the living out of the truth of it is not so funny.

This same friend used to encourage me by saying, "You can't hurt a dead man."  

So if I have died to the flesh, then I am without excuse in my response to "thorns" in my flesh!

How do you not feel hurt when something hurts you?!

You still feel it, but you don't let it get the best of you.  In our current age of heightened over-sensitivity and easily offended-ness, take heed!  It is an evil spirit pervading our culture (the world, really), but we, as Christians, do not have to play into it!

The Lord is showing me that I can (and do!) exalt all sorts of things over Him.  Where is my focus?!

Am I exalting my emotional pain?  Am I exalting the other person's behavior?  Am I exalting my "rights?" 

Oh brother.  All of these are the ways of the world, even of well-meaning "therapists," but they do not belong in our wheelhouse as Christians!  Our worldview has been supernaturally transformed by the Lord!  We now have been gifted, through the Holy Spirit, to see these things for what they are - lies and flesh!

That's not to say that our emotional pain is not real or should be denied.  But neither should it be deified!

We can focus on whatever or whomever we choose.  This is one telltale sign that we are walking in the Spirit - we respond with self-control, part of the fruit of the Spirit.

Jesus never once responded in the flesh to anyone, though He, above all, had every "right" to!

So what can mere flesh do to me when I am walking in the power of Christ Himself?  Nothing!  Ha!

Because Spirit is stronger than flesh, if we let it be - if we feed it more than our flesh.  It is up to us.

Again, do not expect others to display walking in the Spirit.  Most people are not our examples of how to be anyway, so eyes off of them and back onto Christ!

Let us exalt Christ in His rightful place as Lord over our hearts, wills, minds, emotions, and responses (!), and we will walk in His glorious Spirit!

Lord Jesus, help!  I can blame the spiritual forces behind my emotional pain and resulting reactions, but that is just another way of focusing in the wrong place!  Please help me focus on You when my flesh is pricked.  Please help me feed my Spirit more than my flesh.  I want to rise above and truly walk in Your Spirit, Lord Jesus, for that is the only way to real freedom and true life.  Please give me more of Your wisdom and understanding in this, Lord, and use all that comes against me in the flesh to increase my ability, by Your grace, to walk in Your Spirit instead of responding in kind!  In Jesus' Name.  Amen!