The Program Running in the Background
“My soul finds rest in God alone;
My salvation comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”Psalm 62:1-2
The words of David in this Psalm bring comfort and strength, a declaration to himself and others of the role of God in his life. I find the challenge of these words is whether I can say them with the certitude and unwavering faith that David did. Or, does my belief in one moment get wiped away by pressing circumstances in the next? If that is the case, what happened to my faith?
Perhaps it is not that some of us lose our faith, but that the overwhelming nature of our immediate situation reduces our faith to a program running in the background. We’re vaguely aware that it’s still quietly running there, but in the urgency of the moment it has been overridden by a convenient app promising navigation. When the crisis is resolved, we’re able to pull Jesus back into the primary position (often through praise and/or scripture), until the next crisis. While flip-flopping Jesus’ position because lack of faith is not what we should be doing, some of us have been doing it so long that it has become our “normal.” We don’t think much about it as we are too preoccupied trying to manage on our own.
A terrible truth is that even when we believe Jesus is front-and-center, we have a program running in the background called “flesh.” That program is riddled with sinful desires, opinions, lusts, and wounds from the past. Although we’re not cognitively aware that it is always running, it colors our perspectives, drives our words, actions, and emotions, and overly sensitizes or desensitizes us to others around us. It is responsible for most of our misunderstandings, anger, and over-the-top reactions, as it is always centered on self.
The enemy of our souls sets up clever stressors designed to flip the programs of Jesus and the flesh from active to background endlessly. Sometimes it allows us to fool ourselves into thinking Jesus is in charge when the flesh is actually influencing everything. Other times we are acutely aware that we’re in crisis and we feel very alone; fear and desperation have obliterated the still small hum of Jesus running in the background, while simultaneously draining us of power.
So how do we exit this endless cycle? Paul gave sage advice in Galatians 5:16-17: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” Awareness is the starting point. Then it is necessary to understand our natural bent so that we can assess who is in charge. If we cannot find the attributes and demeanor of Jesus, the flesh has taken over. That requires a hard stop for necessary realignment.
We get to choose to operate either in the Spirit or in the flesh. Where we feel powerless against the flesh’s control, choosing the Spirit releases Holy Spirit power to recharge our faith. That puts Jesus front-and-center in all His wisdom and grace. Our flesh is relegated to the background, muted, and taken through a much-needed cleaner program. With our flesh thusly subjugated, we can sincerely say, “My soul finds rest in God alone.”