Hello fellow Christians, hope you all are having a great Sunday.
To start, I have recently stayed at my dad's house last weekend from June 4th-6th. The whole time was uneventful, but let me get down to why I'm asking this question:
First, ever since I got back from staying with him, I've been having this "irrational" fear of the Rabies disease. Now, during my last night there, I did see a rat go out of my room, and the next morning I saw it come in the room two more times before I left. I looked them up, and they are unable to carry the disease since they're so small, so that gave me comfort.
But then some more irrational thoughts came up. I started thinking about a bat flying underneath the door of the room I was in (I kept the door shut and locked), landing on my feet, and biting me as I was asleep. Next, I also keep thinking about a rabid bat lying on the ground in the front yard, and biting my legs or feet as I walked by. On one occasion, I was walking to and from the car, and I was wearing open-toed shoes as well. I did not see a bat on the ground as I was walking, or else I would have noticed it, and remembered it.
I asked my dad if he ever saw a bat near the house, and he said that he some some outside, but never inside the house. This made me feel a bit better too.
However, I can't shake the feeling off. My mom always tells me that the Devil will put stuff in your mind to make you manifest it, and if you keep on thinking negative things, they will eventually become true. Combined with the fact that I'm always anxious about my health, and my overall fear of the R-word disease, I have been miserable this past week. I have already asked God to rebuke Satan, and to ease my mind about this.
Also, before anyone asks, I have not been bitten by any other animal while I was there. The problem is, I don't know if I've been bitten at all, as I have not seen a bat inside the house at all.
Can anyone help here? Is this really the Devil playing tricks on my mind? Thanks!
What's at the bottom of your fear? God? Nope. You. You're at the bottom of your fear. You want to be safe, free of pain, or even the possibility of pain - and so much so that the very unlikely chance of contracting rabies has you fearfully obsessing about it. Really, this is just selfishness out of control. You've become so self-focused, so self-interested, so concerned about yourself, that it's making you miserable. But this is what selfishness
always does, in the end.
I know your fear doesn't on the surface appear to be mere selfishness, but, at it's heart, that's all this concern you have about getting rabies actually is. Has your selfishness made you better? Are you happier, more content, being self-concerned to the point of anxious obsessiveness? It doesn't sound like it.
So, what does God say is the remedy for the sort of self-centeredness you're caught in? Well, you, the self-centered person you are apart from God, the person you are when you aren't under His constant control, has to die. This person is just so awful, so self-focused, you see, that God can't make it better. The apostle Paul wrote about this "old man," as he called it (
Romans 6:6), saying the following things:
Romans 8:5-8
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
A person is either "fleshly-minded", having their mind set on their physical condition, on satisfying the impulses of their non-spiritual self, and on earthly stuff, or they have their mind set on God, on the will and way of the Holy Spirit, and on eternal things. A person can't be of both minds; it's only one or the other. These two "minds" are so different that they are actually at war with each other, seeking totally opposite things.
Galatians 5:17
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
God's not going to try and improve your fleshly-minded, selfish Self; He's going to get rid of it and replace it with a new, spiritual nature that is centered upon God. This is what Paul was talking about when he wrote things like,
Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Romans 6:6
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Galatians 5:24
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Whenever you're fearful, obsessing about rabies, or whatever, you're revealing that you are not under the Spirit's control, living as the "new creature in Christ" that all saved, born-again people are. Your fear shows that Self, the flesh-focused, earthly-minded person you are without God, is in control. And when Self is in control, things always get worse, not better. You see, Self has no limiting ability; Self can't control itself. It will always seek its own even when doing so becomes hurtful and destructive - just like it is now in making you obsessively fearful. It is Self, it is selfishness, that drives people into killing addictions, and paralyzing anxieties, and perverting practices.
But, thankfully, God offers to bring you under His control and into the peace, joy and stability that He is. He's not going to force you under His control, though. Only as you choose - and keep choosing - His control, His will and way, over your own, will He then work to change your desires, and thinking, and behaviour. This is God's way to freedom from all selfishness and sin.
Romans 6:13-18
13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Romans 12:1
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
James 4:7-10
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
1 Peter 5:6-7
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
When we place ourselves under God's control throughout each day, He moves in us to change who we are, freeing us more and more from who we are apart from God, from the person we are when we are under the control of Self. And as God does this, fear, lust, temper, pride - selfishness - declines and dissolves and the character of Jesus develops in their place.
