Identifying the greatest threat to your peace
What’s the greatest threat to peace and happiness in your life?
Every day you hear about some threat that’s occurring in the world. We hear about hacker threats, scammers stealing social media accounts, threats of identity theft, as well as threats to our health and relationships.
A threat is something that is going to hurt us. It’s a person, a thing, an activity or an event likely to cause danger to our lives. There’s a difference between a threat and a risk. A risk is something that we can take intentionally. A threat doesn’t have an upside, only a downside.
A threat is often dressed as an opportunity or simple pleasure.
Personal threats also exist. A personal threat to you may be different than a personal threat to me.
- It can be as simple as wasting time.
- Friendships can be a threat.
- Entertainment can be a threat.
- Drugs can be a threat.
- Going after wealth can be a threat.
- An emotional threat may not be something you wrestle with, but many struggle to keep their anger, their pain or their need to control in check.
Managing Personal Threats
It’s important to deal with a threat when it’s small. When you do, it’s manageable. Many of us struggle with things today, that if we had dealt with them when we were younger, we wouldn’t be wrestling with them today. It’s as simple as what we choose to eat, how we choose to think or interact with people or any number of things.
For instance, if you have a family history of colon cancer, you want to get a colonoscopy so you can stay ahead of any issues. Perhaps you know people who didn’t do that, and eventually colon cancer took their lives. If that threat had been dealt with when it was small and manageable, they may still be alive today. This is true of many things in medicine.
We each have different tolerance levels to threats in our lives. Some of us are very vulnerable to certain threats where another person is not quite so much. That’s why we’ve got to be careful because we don’t know.
How to take your personal threat assessment.
We started with the question: What is the greatest threat to your peace and happiness? Now, I invite you to take a personal threat assessment that’s used by professionals when they’re dealing with threats to our nation and to the world.
- Identify the threats to your life and to your family.
Ask yourself, what is one threat you know you have in your life that you are particularly vulnerable to right now?
I have to be careful because my thinking can get me into trouble. If I start to think in the wrong direction, it can cause me to start to react to that thinking. If I don’t realize that thinking is a lie, it can drag me into an emotional response, which does not honor God and is not healthy for me.
2. Assess the threats potential for harm in your life.
Some threats have minimal effect in your life, but others have potential to grow into something that can kill us.
An unhealthy relationship can be innocent, but it has the potential to greatly damage your life. Not managing your money correctly long term can threaten to destroy your financial security and your family.
As you look at each of these threats, give each one a number – that’s a 10. If I’m not careful with that threat it’s like putting my hand on the stove. I’m going to burn myself.
3. Put together an intentional plan to prepare for the threats.
How do you prepare for the next threat that’s coming – because it’s coming?
We put on a seat belt because we know there’s a threat out there. Many of us have never had to use a seat belt. We drive for thousands of miles, and the seat belt does nothing. That thing that we just do by habit – putting on a seat belt – may someday protect you when that threat of an accident becomes a reality.
What does the Bible say about preparing for threats?
Here are four Scriptures to pay attention to:
If we apply these to our lives, we can prepare for the threat that’s inevitable.
The first thing that we see is in first Peter chapter five where Peter says to us, stay alert. Underline that in your mind.
1. Stay alert (1 Peter 5:8).
Are you the kind of person who is always aware of what’s going on around you? Do you see something that doesn’t make sense and avoid it? That’s the way I’m wired.
“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8 NLT). Satan will always target that area of your life where he knows he can get a foothold. Like a lion, Satan is watching where he can attack.
If you’ve ever watched the movements of a cat, even a little cat loves to hide behind something as he prepares to attack. When he’s a cat, it’s not a problem, but when it’s a lion, it’s a big problem. He’ll try to rip your face off.
And if we can deal with the little cats, we’re okay, but when the big ones come like a roaring lion, we better be alert.
2. Resist the devil (James 4:7).
Satan is not all powerful. Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7 NLT). Satan is not all powerful. 1 John 4:4 says, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (ESV). Then James tells us “When you draw close to God, God will draw close to you” (James 4:8 ESV).
The proximity to God makes a difference in how threatened we can be in life. It’s like when you take your kids or grandkids to an area where there’s a potential threat. You take the little kids’ hands and hold on to them because you want them to be safe. And little kids will reach out to take your hands because they feel safer near you.
When the threats come, you have your hand in God’s hand.
3. Cleanse your hands (James 4:8).
Washing your hands is ceremonial. Donna and I have been to Israel three times. Last time we stayed in an Orthodox Jewish hotel. They had cleansing pools throughout the hotel for the ceremonial washing away of sins. In other words, wash away the things in your life that are holding you back.
And then purify your hearts, your soul and your mind through your closeness to God, allowing Him to work in you through the Holy Spirit.
4. Be strong in the Lord (Ephesians 6:10).
“Finally, let the mighty strength of the Lord make you strong. Put on all the armor that God gives, so you can defend yourself against the devil’s tricks. We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world. So put on all the armor that God gives. Then when that evil day comes, you will be able to defend yourself. And when the battle is over, you will still be standing firm” Ephesians 6:10-13 CEV).
People are not our problem. When it comes to temptation, they may be the instruments of temptation, but our battles to overcome our personal threats are spiritual.
Paul shares this allegory in Ephesians 6 of putting on the armor of God with the people of his day. They see Roman soldiers all around them. The soldiers are dressed in warfare, ready to go into battle.
Paul continues, “Be ready! Let the truth be like a belt around your waist, and let God’s justice protect you like armor. Your desire to tell the good news about peace should be like shoes on your feet. Let your faith be like a shield, and you will be able to stop all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Let God’s saving power be like a helmet, and for a sword use God’s message that comes from the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:14-17 CEV).
The belt was the most important thing because it held up everything else that was going to go on. The people understood truth was required before the breastplate of righteousness or having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In other words, we have to be ready to share the gospel wherever we go.
Of all these war instruments that Paul talks about, only one is on the offense. All the rest are defensive. They’re all about protecting ourselves. Paul ends by instructing us to then pick up the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God.
So, it’s really important to have our defensive warfare ready to protect ourselves from the enemy as he attacks. But then we must also be ready with the Word of God. You attack all those threats in your life by understanding what the Bible says to us.
- Husbands love your wives. That’s a sword, preparing us for battle against the threats in our marriage.
- We are to see the threats in the workplace through the truth that we’re working for God not for man.
- Our children can be safe when they obey the command, “Children, obey your parents.”
- And parents, don’t exasperate your children, but bring them up in the admonition of the Lord.
The Bible is clear with these offensive steps that we need to take.
Paul is not only reminding us to be on the defense, but he’s also saying to be ready for the attack because when Satan is coming after you, he’s coming after your marriage. He’s coming after your mind. He’s coming after your kids. You have to be on the offense, ladies and gentlemen. We’ve got to be stepping up today to protect our kids and grandkids.
So back to the question that we started with – What is the greatest threat to your peace and happiness today? Only you can answer that. Think about it. You know what it is.
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