Sometimes it is difficult to fathom that what I see is a reflection of my beliefs. After all, Jesus said that what we pray believing does happen. So what does my world show me I believe in? Is this a reliable gauge that can tell me everything I need to know?

As I was driving to work one day, pondering the debt that someone owed me and becoming irritated, it suddenly occurred to me that I was seemingly unwilling to follow Jesus' command to not be concerned with making sure people pay me back on loans I make. My concern of this was a focus on mammon. My “gauge” of experience was telling me to back off from this concern and give it to the Lord. I was falling into the trap this world lays everywhere and is so easy to step into. Like those bear traps in the woods, when we step into this trap, it may take a while but we eventually let loose with a terrible scream of, "I can't take it anymore!" Jesus is the only way out of Satan's trap.

Satan's trap is projection. Projection is when we make everyone and everything else the cause of all our problems. This is a refusal to take responsibility for how we see the world. Truthfully, we are all either seeing through the eyes of our Lord or through the eyes of Satan. There is no other choice. If I refuse to acknowledge the power of my mind (in Christ Jesus) by turning to Him at all times, then I am acknowledging the enemy and giving him power he does not deserve. I allow him to use my vision and other senses to accrue data about the world. Does this make sense? Allowing Satan to see through me is what makes me feel hopeless and dejected. Allowing Satan to see through me also causes a lot of economic wheels to turn. It pays collection agencies, lawyers and, because it fosters belief in random acts of terror, insurance agencies. We either trust in the Lord or we don't. What do our gauges say we are doing?

If someone is irritating me at work, owes me a debt that is grating on my nerves, bothering me at home and robbing me of my peace of mind, I can most assuredly know that I have work to do. That is my spiritual gauge, my measure of success in really knowing if Jesus resides in my heart, giving peace to my mind. Those of us who follow Christ enthusiastically will not be free from the world's attacks, but we will have the peace that comes when we are doing God's will. The more out of peace we are, the lower we are on the scale of following Christ and letting Him rule in our hearts. Are we going to let Him rule or not? When we get tired of letting Satan rule our world, by doing as he asks and judging everything that happens to us by appearances, then, at last, we will relinquish our desire to figure everything out for ourselves. Then we will let the Lord guide us as He so very much wants to. We are responsible for choosing who we're going to follow in this world. Is it going to be Jesus or is it going to be Satan? Our peace of mind is our gauge in how well we are doing.

To assess my holy journey I need to step back from myself and grab the measuring stick of Jesus' teaching in the New Testament. I then need to hold it up to my life. The more the world (and all those in it) takes me out of God's peace, the greater the work is before me. Indeed, it is not I, but the Father within who does the work. However, if I have spent years and years taking control of my life, not walking in Christ's teaching that I must love others, thinking that I have to fend for myself in this world, I fail to remember God is on His throne. I start believing He doesn't have much interest in my scrawny little life. Then, can you see, that I might not be able to instantly give all that up and come to the Lord fully? The work that I have to do, then, is simple but it must be done. I must persistently and willingly give up making things happen on my own. I must steadfastly put the ball in God's court and quit leaping over the net to retrieve it, so I can run my life again. This is what gets me back on track and on God's mercy train. This is what gets me the peace of mind God so wants me to have.

If we are praying for God to change us but He just isn't doing it, then we need to be willing to make some effort ourselves toward what we know is right (according to Jesus in the Word). This effort will be rewarded by God as he adjusts our path and gives us encouragement in many ways.

It is not difficult to grasp that Jesus works with us in all things. The difficulty comes in letting go of our focus on the appearances this world sticks in front of our faces. These appearances just cause us to set ourselves up for pain, if we're looking at them as if they were the truth. They aren't. Jesus is. If Satan tells us that we're being attacked and we nod arrogantly that, indeed, the world is not a safe place to live and we must defend every aspect of all that we treasure, then Satan is telling us what to do, not Jesus. Paul said to not be worried about anything and to pray about everything. This is what fosters the peace of mind we long for. If we're not doing that, then we must make an effort to do it. Otherwise we are choosing to give Satan all the power as we focus on his worldly appearances.

The Bible says our treasures are where our hearts are. The worldly appearances are NOT the treasures that God has in store for us. Let's stop manipulating our lives around worldly problems. Instead, let our priorities be praying and believing in God's mighty power and compassionate love for us. If we feel alone here, it is not because God isn't with us, but because we are not with Him. Why don't we make it a point to look in Jesus' eyes (figuratively, of course) more often? A lot more will be accomplished for us than if we try to handle the world's problems, ourselves. Indeed, it was eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (judgment) that got us booted out of paradise. What possible purpose could it serve to continue to acquire knowledge, gleaned from our own unseeing eyes and unhearing ears?

Our angry response to the world will be a gauge to show us how much we are focused on its appearances and think them true. The peace we have will be a gauge that will come to us (after the tears have dried) when we choose to let Jesus rule our hearts by our continual prayer to Him, in all situations that happen to us. It is impossible to love both the world AND Jesus. Where is our treasure, then?

The pilots glance at their instrument panels for an understanding of how their craft is doing, on the flight. The poll takers gauge public opinion (plus or minus 4 points, usually). The weather person can tell us if it will rain soon. We, who are studying the Bible, can measure our progress just as easily by observing our reactions. Are we in peace or are we steeped in misery? If the gauge shows we are out of kilter, by our free will we need to adjust whose course we are following.  

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