Take a Stand - a Bible study

I think I put my finger on why the idea of only thinking positively bothers me so much.  I have written extensively about complacency.  It is easy to become complacent about ideas and actions that harm us.  Refusing to acknowledge the bad through "thinking positively" leads to this complacency.

The cult of positive thinking bothers me most when individuals put a Christian spin on it.  In other words, when individuals pick and choose Bible Verses to justify this line of thinking.  This leads to Christian complacency and often to spiritual abuse.

This morning, I was studying in II Corinthians 4.  In this Chapter, Paul writes about human weakness.  He writes of God's mercy.  He writes of the god of this world blinding those who do not believe.

Verses 7-12 are often-quoted.  They describe the treasure of the gospel in jars of clay, referring to human vessels.  Paul then writes of the persecution he and his fellow ministers face in this world that has been blinded - "We are hard pressed on every side, but  not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed" (II Corinthians 4:8-10).  

However, it is Verse 13 that really stood out to me today.  In this Verse, Paul refers to the popular Greek translation of Psalm 116:10.  He writes, "It is written: 'I believed; therefore, I have spoken.'  Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak."  

Because we believe, in a spirit of faith, we speak.  We have no choice.  We cannot keep what we know to be truth bottled up inside of us.  To do so would not be the spirit of faith.  

Ephesians 6:11 commands us to put on the full armor of God and take a stand.  As a student who has often studied what Paul refers to as the full armor of God, I believe one of the key aspects of this armor is to take a stand once we have it on.  Throughout history, the idea of being "shot in the back" has been a mark of cowardice.  It was no different in Roman times.  Back wounds or wounds that were received when retreating were considered shameful.

We must take a stand.  Paul was crushed and persecuted and perplexed and struck down, but he did not back down to the god of this world.  I am going to take a stand and say that the god of this world in 2017 promotes the idea that positive thinking conquers all.  Positive thinking is not faith.  Faith is taking a stand in God's promises through Christ.  Positive thinking is complacency.  It is allowing the god of this world to shoot us in the back as we  retreat out of fear and complacency.  

Something that has been in the back of my mind for close to twenty years has been why some people's fear seems to overtake them - both in life and in death.  I have personally witnessed people who live in fear all of their lives die from those fears.  I have seen people who are deathly afraid of illness, to the point of avoiding nearly all contact with other people, die from a germ-related illness.  I have seen people who avoided even slightly dangerous situations their entire lives die in freak accidents.

While I am certainly not placing the blame on these individuals, I have to ask myself, as someone who was taught to live in fear, if refusing to take a stand was the biblical thing to do.  It is so much easier to withdraw into the mindset that if we just continue thinking positively, everything will be just as we want it.  We can ignore our fears.  We can ignore injustices.  We can ignore abuses.  We can ignore our own downfalls and sins.  

Soon the nation will remember Martin Luther King, Jr. on the third Monday of January.  We often like to remember his will for peace, which is certainly something to be admired and followed.  However, do we ever stop to think that when he was arrested for his stand, he was written by several well-known Christian pastors and told to stop.  He was told he was misrepresenting Christianity.  He was condemned for his stand by those who should have stood with him.  He was then killed for his stand.  

Paul also was killed for stand.  So were ten of Jesus' closest disciples.  So were many in the Christian church.  So have been many throughout the centuries.  They did not die from retreating wounds.  They stood in the full armor of God.  

Whatever the outcome of our stand, I am convinced we should not retreat in fear.  We should not accept the wounds in the back because we choose positive thinking over speaking in the spirit of faith.  We must take actions in our words and our deeds.