As I am sitting here typing this, I looked out my window to see a beautiful sunset. I almost missed it since my eyes were focused on my computer, and my mind was thinking about the words I was about to type. It is a perfect example of the myriad ways that we might loose God’s gift of awareness. The important things around us as get lost in the comfortableness of the everyday.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith…
Peter gives us a glimpse into God’s powerful gift of awareness. We are being pursued by an enemy – the devil. This devil is not up to any good, but is looking to devour his prey – which just so happens to include you and me.
Praise the Almighty God! He did not leave us without some instructions: be sober-minded, be watchful, resist the devil, stand firm in your faith. And these are just from one passage.
God did not create us to be without hope as we face an enemy that is relentless. God has given us an incredible gift in our ability to absorb, retain, and process our surroundings. This gift is so amazing that man’s understanding of how it works is incredibly limited. New insights often upend previous paradigms.
Our sensory processing comes from various receptors that intake and attempt to make sense of things around us. Because we are flooded with so much information every second, our amazing system divides most observations into 2 categories – conscious and subconscious. Our subconscious processes most of this information as our conscious efforts have very limited capabilities.
Most of the information that is processed in our subconscious is sorted into an “unimportant” category. This information is quickly removed from our retrievable memory. Think about the last time you were at a busy store. How many things that you experienced from the store can you recall? Most have a vague, fuzzy feeling. Likely you experienced seeing a certain item on a shelf, but you aren’t quite sure. While not impacting recalled memory, these subconscious experiences still shape our comfortable everyday habits.
Whether you like it or not, you are always gaining subconscious observations of yourself and the world around you. The question is are you taking advantage of God’s gift of awareness – purposeful observation? Awareness is what we are consciously focused on. We have control over awareness. Earlier, I chose to take a break and go outside to view a beautiful sunset. I placed my conscious observation on God’s beauty revealed in creation that existed only in that moment and would not be exactly the same again. Each moment we have a free-will choice as to where our awareness will be and how we will process the incoming information.
God’s gift of awareness gives us the ability to strengthen our senses, to refine our paradigms, to reflect on how God speaks about the things we are observing. The most amazing part about awareness is that God allows us to build awareness from our body, soul, and spirit. We have 5 senses that are often talked about: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Then there is also the awareness that comes from our soul: emotional awareness. Our spirit also has an awareness that allows us to experience and discern between the things that are of God and the things that are not of God. Each of these impacts the other as God so deftly designed us to experience them all.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
We can compare our purposeful observations to the Bible to refine our understanding. The more we increase our awareness in any area, the more we are able to recognize the attacks of the enemy. We are able to be on guard against things that might have otherwise snuck through into our subconscious observations. We are able to be watchful of what is happening around us and more often than before to stand firm in our faith when that sneaky devil asks us “Is that what God really said?”
While there is a long way to go on this road and we know that our strength alone is insufficient, we know that God is with us leading us forward. He is there to remind us that when we fail (as we most certainly will do), He is right there offering His love, forgiveness, teaching, and guidance. Each time this happens we grow stronger, firmer, and more assured in our faith. We are more confident there is absolutely no way for us to succeed on our own. Our only hope lies in Jesus who is our redeemer. Christ Jesus has set us free from condemnation and has given us life as we are led by Him.
BeLED by Jesus: Be aware you are His beloved Light shining uncondemned in the darkness. Be aware you are Entrusted with learning more about Him using His gift of awareness. Be aware you are Disciples and disciple-makers who use awareness to build stronger relationships with Jesus and those around you.
