Day 70- Feeling Trapped
📖Daily Reading
2 Chronicles 16-19
🎥 Video
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
2 Chronicles 16: 7-10
At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa and told him, “Because you have put your trust in the king of Aram instead of in the Lord your God, you missed your chance to destroy the army of the king of Aram. Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army , with all of their chariots and charioteers? At that time you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you. The eyes of the lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on you will be at war.”
Asa became so angry with Hanani for saying this that he threw him into prison and put him in stocks. At that time Asa also began to oppress some of his people.
Have you ever felt trapped or backed into a corner? We don’t always think straight when we are in that state of mind. King Asa of Judah found himself literally surrounded on all sides with no way out, by King Baasha of Israel after a long period of peace and prosperity. He did exactly what most of us might do, he looked to himself to provide a solution, he looked at his resources which were many and took action. He made an alliance with King Ben-Haddad of Aram and paid him to break his alliance with King Baasha, and it worked.
The message here as we look at the following part of the story outlined in the scripture above, is that when we take matters into our own hands we can actually make things worse for ourselves and others in the process. We aren’t thinking rationally sometimes or checking with wise counsel and seeking God’s direction. We act out of desperation and relying our own wisdom, logic, resources, limited vision, fear, scarcity, etc…. Asa even doubled down on this after hearing the message and got righteous and angry, he didn’t want to admit that he acted out of turn or rashly. It made him angry to be called out.
He also did what most of us do when we are angry, we take it out on our people! Am I right? We act out of fear, impulsiveness, impatience, desperation, and ‘ready fire aim’ spirit! Internally we often realize it but we don’t like to admit that we are wrong or it could have been done differently, that we acted rashly etc and we get angry at ourselves and we then take it out on our loved ones, right?! Am I alone here? We also learn in this story that Asa develops a nasty foot disease, his stubbornness has not eased. He refused to pray about it or ask for God’s help with it, he chose suffering and victimhood instead.
When we get stubborn, hard headed and too self reliant this way, we lose sight of gratitude and the provision and protection we have been provided and turn ourselves into victims and martyrs, and we can’t even see that we are doing it! I have done so much work now, that when I start feeling this way I know that something else in my life is off track. Usually it is in my morning routine which includes a gratitude practice.
Yes even the gal who is doing a Rise & Shine daily bible time and reflection is not always grateful which can give room for negative thoughts to creep in that can quickly spiral cause me to feel trapped ,fearful, impatient and forgetful of God’s provision. God’s plan for me is so much greater than any ‘good’ plan I can accomplish on my own, I know this and yet if I don’t remind myself of this daily and seek His will I quickly forget.
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
Does this happen to you too?
📖Tomorrows Reading
2 Chronicles 20-29
Coaching Opportunity
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