“You have apps running in the background”
This was the notification that showed up on my new smartphone, “You have apps running in the background”. I touched the notification pop-up and I was given more detailed information.
It seemed that my phone knew, from my normal usage, that I didn’t really need certain apps running. And it was correct. There are many apps on my phone that I don’t use daily.
I was then shown the apps that were running in the background. The information explained to me that by allowing these apps to continue running it would limit the functioning and ability of my phone. On top of that it would also drain the battery much more quickly.
The next step for me to take, (if I wanted to), was to touch the tab that read “Optimize”. By taking this small action, an action of little effort, the phone would shut down these apps for me.
If I cared about my battery draining quicker than needed, the functioning speed of my phone, and allowing it to be able to work optimally, I only needed to touch the next tab. This would allow the unnecessary apps in the background to be put to sleep.
I could reopen any of them again, at any time, when they may be needed. But for now, I just needed to put them to sleep.
I thought about my life. The many fears, worries and concerns I had not put to sleep. Seeing how badly these things drained me, wore me down, and nearly destroyed me. Having been forced to retire from my previous career in law enforcement due to PTSD, Anxiety, depression. Even now, just trying to live a somewhat normal life, I have thoughts, concerns, and responsibilities that scream for my attention.
Maybe, if I had learned to put to sleep these "apps", these concerns, responsibilities, fears and worries to sleep, maybe I wouldn’t have experienced the extreme torment of PTSD and all that came with it. If I hadn’t carried “the weight of the world”, but learned sooner to let God carry them, perhaps I would not have had to go through much of the hell I experienced.
However, that is not what happened. Yet, now I see the promise of “God using all things for the good…” being fulfilled. I am learning what I have desperately needed to learn.
Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God.
Philippians 4:6 AMP
I am learning to put to sleep all things that He is not having me deal with at that specific moment. With every detail, everything in our lives, we will be drained and cluttered if we are allowing things to run in the background. Things that need to temporarily be put to sleep.
Even the things our logic says that we have to “care about”. Don’t be deceived. Are you caring or worrying? We often put worries in the background, believing that we aren't focusing on them. Even confusing it with “peace”. But that’s not the answer. Pushing worry into your subconscious is not the same as “giving it to God”.
Recognize what "apps", what things, you may be allowing to run in the background of your mind and your emotions. Recognize them and choose to put them to sleep. Ask your Father for wisdom. He gives it generously to those who ask.
Ask your Father to teach you to see how to put your background apps to sleep, and not just in your subconscious. Ask Him to help you identify the things He wants you to see that should be put to sleep.
God wants you to be running optimally. Are you running less than optimal? Is your battery becoming drained faster than it probably should? The enemy wants to drain you. To make you slower, weaker, less than optimal.
The enemy of our souls comes to kill and steal, and ultimately destroy us. But God gives us life. Life that is abundant. Life that is optimal.
During a vicious storm the disciples got upset at Jesus. They were seeing and experiencing a huge storm. A storm that was so bad they were certain the ship would be tipped, sunk, or something tragic. This was all occurring while Jesus was sleeping in the bottom of the boat.
A huge storm came. It was forcing water in the boat, slapping the disciples in the face. They were choking on the water and watching the waves come up higher than their boat, tossing them around helplessly. But Jesus, He slept.
Jesus was woken by the disciples. They couldn’t believe He would just be sleeping when they all agreed, “the majority vote” (12 to 1) were all afraid. And they agree that He should have been too. If He wasn’t afraid, or “concerned”, then He should have at least done something about it.
Jesus’ peace, His calm, His faith that allowed Him to be able to sleep during the storm, looked much like passivity. It probably looked, through the eyes of fear, like Jesus was being uncaring. It probably seemed to the ones in fear that Jesus was not paying attention to the reality of what was going on. Was Jesus being passive, or apathetic?
True peace and Faith can look like that sometimes. Because it refuses to be driven by fear. God’s spirit, and His people, are (should be) only driven by love, by peace, by His voice, and by faith.
After all this ruckus, then Jesus got up and He calmed the storm. But, He calmed it for them. The storm didn’t bother Him. The storm didn’t bother Jesus. He knew that no matter what came, He was getting to the other side. Because He knew His Father was sending them there.
His mind, heart, and soul, His faith (His phone) was functioning optimally. He was focused on God. On what God was saying. What God was doing, and where He was leading. The storms, the apps, the worries in the background, were put to sleep.
Jesus literally slept. Despite the apps that were running in everyone else's minds, lives, and physical sight. When others thought it logical, normal, even neccesary, to be in fear and be concerned, Jesus didn’t. He didn’t think, and doesn't think, it is normal to worry.
Let’s find out for ourselves, individually, what we need to put to sleep. Let God show you how you can put things to sleep. Let's take the small, simple act of asking God to help us see what, and how, to live in His true peace.
He promises us His peace. Not like the world's peace, but a better peace. A peace that doesn't make sense. A peace that surpasses our logic and understanding. This is the peace that is going to allow us to live Life. Real life, abundant life. Fully and optimally.
Therefore I tell you, stop being worried or anxious (perpetually uneasy, distracted) about your life. What you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, as to what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow [seed] nor reap [the harvest] nor gather [the crops] into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?
And who of you by worrying can add one hour to [the length of] his life? And why are you worried about clothes? See how the lilies and wildflowers of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin [wool to make clothing], yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory and splendor dressed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive and green today and tomorrow is [cut and] thrown [as fuel] into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!
Therefore do not worry or be anxious (perpetually uneasy, distracted), saying, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ For the [pagan] Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; [but do not worry,] for your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also.
So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:25-34 AMP
Комментарии