Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

If our minds are not functioning right there is no way we can put on the next piece of clothing, our shoes. The battlefield is our minds and it is here that the enemy tends to attach us (2Cor. 10:4). He wants to create fear and anxiety in all our minds so that he can get us to defeat ourselves before we even enter the fray. The greatest killer for all of us is anxiety and the ability to allow us to become anxious is the major weapon of the enemy. In November 2001 my wife and I went on a cruise around the Caribbean, but we had to travel to America to board the ship. This was shortly after the Twin Towers were destroyed in New York in September 11. On arrival at Heathrow Airport we saw armed soldiers with machine guns guarding the place, which was scary, but even more frustrating was the fact that every piece of luggage we carried was searched. One of the most exciting times during our marriage could have been ruined by the heightened security that was put in place after the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York. The unseen enemy had put so much fear in the hearts of the authorities that they had gone right overboard in my opinion. The rise in anxiety level is the antitheses of what were are told to do by the word, Jesus. When he speaks, it is to our spirits and this is what He says: Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or your body what you will wear. Is not life more than food and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life span? (Matt 6:25-27 NRSV). And the apostle Paul encourages us to be “anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made know to the God. And the peace of or from God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:6-7 NRSV).