Mark Affleck

Is YOUR Faith Heartbeat ELEVATED This COVID CHRISTMAS?

December 8, 2020
Spiritual Growth

Looking through thousands of comments from our global online tribe this past year has given me deep insight into the heartbeat of what it means to be a Christian on planet earth in 2020. I’m not a cardiologist, but I can clearly see that it’s a confused heart beating faster and faster. A frightened heart skipping more and more beats. A fragile heart looking for a way to slow down like a NASCAR driver entering one of Dayton’s dangerous turns at 200 MPH.
  
Our hearts are clearly being overstimulated with an unprecedented barrage of inputs and noise—especially during December’s ramp to a COVID CHRISTMAS.
  
In an oddly counter-intuitive twist, our overstimulated and anxious hearts seem to depress our underlying mood and disposition unless caught early. This can create a SPIRITUAL FUNK when you:

  • …see someone else SUCCEED and become flushed with envy.
  • …hear a CRITICAL comment from one of your closest friends.   
  • …learn that your YEAR-END BONUS isn’t what you expected.
  • …realize your COVID-TINGED holiday will be full of hardship.
  • …view a PELOTON AD set in a huge mansion and it’s not you.

Even the deepest and sturdiest faith falls prey to this kind of SPIRITUAL FUNK that is almost impossible to interrupt once the torrent of torment begins raining on your parade. Unless, of course, we turn to God.
  
We cannot click on HAPPY and make the SPIRITUAL FUNK go away. We cannot hit delete on our angst and send it to the recycle graveyard. But we can and must surrender to Christ and commit our SPIRITUAL FUNK to him.
  
Even though SPIRITUAL FUNKS are going to come on the ramp to this COVID CHRISTMAS, we still must ask God to help us fight back so they show up less…leave earlier…and do less damage.
  
Here’s my three-step plan to meet any SPIRITUAL FUNK that shows up this December on the road to 2020’s COVID CHRISTMAS: 1) Identify my anxiety IMMEDIATELY and pair it with a truth from God’s Word; 2) Meditate on that truth; and 3) Call on that truth over and over until the FUNK starts to break down.
  
I ask God to help me identify SPIRITUAL FUNKS early and immediately call on his Word to interrupt their arrival.
  
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
  
Are you ready to fight off any SPIRITUAL FUNKS that come into your life on the ramp to 2020’s COVID CHRISTMAS?
  
“Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth.” Colossians 3:2
  
 

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