No Way Out
April 11, 2025
No Way Out
Fight, Freeze, or Flight
Abstract
Christians are in the world but not part of it. As such, there are many possible sources of stress. This article offers an idea to trust God indirectly. This non-intuitive technique does not focus on the stress factor but on God.
Introduction
Sometimes, there seem to be more reasons to live in fear and worry than to be relaxed, doing what we can, and trusting that the rest will work out.
Sometimes, we worry about medical conditions, procedures, or costs. Other times, there will be something about the environment, such as severe weather in the forecast or pollution. During some periods, we may worry about civil problems such as the economy, the justice system, or war. Our first should be to apply reason. Does worrying help? Indeed, it can be the source of the motivation to do all that we can to mitigate the threat or destruction.
To determine common sense, we sometimes are helped by creating a spectrum. At one end is the worst possible state that we can think of. This should be a condition that will never happen in real life, an ‘absurd’ condition. The other end is a state that fits on the spectrum but has such little impact on anything that it will never be a factor we plan for. Let us take the weather as an example case. At the left end point of the spectrum, one (single) drop of rain will fall on our head. You and I expend resources planning to mitigate the effect of one drop of rain. The resources could be purchasing insurance, buying rain gear, adjusting our plans for the day, and working through the ramifications. At the far end of the spectrum is severe weather never before seen by humankind. For example, one thousand mile per hour winds blowing across every square inch of the earth’s surface.
Suppose you are planning resources for health care and crime. If you are current undergoing a violent attack, then you must stop that before preparing for health care.
Our sense of reality, the accurate assessment of a condition right now, comes from what we experience or the testimony of trusted friends. What if a situation (condition) is creating stress but it is far away? If it interests many people, the news will likely cover it. Regarding the news, we in the audience are not the customer. News media funding comes from those who pay for advertising or sponsorship. The news aims to get viewers; more viewers means that their air time is more valuable, and they can charge more for advertising. We have often heard that lousy news draws a greater audience than good news. Let us speculate for a moment. Imagine that your news source is biased toward painting houses blue. A biased news source will interview more subject matter experts supporting blue houses and decrying green houses. You may hear of burglaries, leaking roofs, and cracked paint being reported where the news person is bodily communicating a subtle amount of stress. Perhaps eyes wide open, voice control transmitting a sense of being serious. When reporting on problems in blue houses, upbeat voice and statements such as ’this is easily corrected.’
What is the Christian to do? We believe in God, but can we manipulate a superior being? We all agree that this is wrong on many levels. We plead with God for Him to step in a correct what we cannot. Then we leave the prayer chamber, make observations, and all too often, the prayer did not seem to make any difference.
Establishing Anchor Concepts
Let us establish some axioms—self-evident truths by which we use reasoning to build some answers. One way to discover a valid path to a goal is to start with a list of what does not work.
(Php 2:12 NIV) Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, (Related, Mt 24.46)
All Christians do good works. If that is not true, then something is wrong. Who among us has earned his or her salvation by good works? Who has paid their debt for their sins by earning salvation? No one. Well-established salvation theology such as this qualifies as an axiom. We accept Christ as our Saviour and consequently do good works.
Who has transformed from arrogance to humility by their effort to renew their mind? Is that what the following verse means?
(Rom 12:2 NIV) Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Suppose at the weekly service of your church, you hear someone encouraging people to be humble. Can we agree that arrogance is unpleasant to others and perhaps a type of sin? When we realize others interpret our behavior as arrogance, do we behave differently as a thespian in a movie could do from acting lessons? Or might this be an indicator of an inner need for change? Perhaps the need for profound change can only come as an action of God.
(Eze 36:26 NIV) I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Question: What do you think about the verse above? Is it merely a nice, feel-good statement? Or might it be stating an action God is willing to do for us today? If the word ‘hear,’ as used in the Bible, embodies desires, emotion, will (choice), and desire, how could we be unaware of this change? Is the Christian transformed at salvation?
(2Co 5:17-18 NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
There is a way to trust God for this change. You may say, But I prayed for humility last week, and nothing happened. So, let us work on the core issue: Are Christians changed at salvation in a way that makes a difference in their experience of this life?
For review, we will repeat a few questions and then continue with more.
Do we earn our salvation? No, we accept Christ as our Saviour. The Holy Spirit illuminates our understanding of the need for salvation. At that point, we have a decision to make: accept Christ or not. Our choices affect outcomes, but that does not mean we are the causation of an outcome. A person famous for becoming rich based on correct investments now says that his good fortune was not by his genius, but by chance: luck, an event like generating a random number that happened to be fruitful.
Do we perform mental exercises to bolster faith so that God will do what we want? Do we perform mental exercises to improve our ability to heal others in the name of Jesus?
(Mat 17:20 NIV) He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.“Do we work up our faith to an elevated state of performing miracles? Let us continue under the belief that the answer to both questions is no; these are God-given gifts.
(Eph 2:8, 10 NIV) For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Are we the rulers of our own lives? Do Christians do what they want to do when they want to do it, rejecting all other influence? Suppose Christians humble themselves as much as it is up to them, before God every day. After a few minutes of private time focused on Him, they pray daily, ‘I will obey you whenever I know your will.’ Are you spiritually perfect at that moment? No. Jesus understands this to be your sincere intent and He knows what it is like to be human. As we continue praying (the above) and repeating a sin, we will eventually hit a point where we quench the leading of the Holy Spirit, and our trajectory toward godliness can continue but a few (directional) degrees off of what could have been.
Recapitulation, if we pray daily something like, not my will but Your will, and then go out and knowingly disobey again and again rips most of us apart eventually resulting in an intensely emotional repentance. The following verse explains this.
(Heb 10:26-27 NIV) If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
Spare yourself the emotional pain in the Hebrews verses and decide now to obey God in all things, starting today.
Dear Lord, guide us in our choices, which enable us to firmly follow through on our commitments to you. We plead, guide us toward choices supporting a clear mind, sober decisions.
In what you intend to do, learn all that you can so that when you do it you will do it fully equipped as best you can be. This may require classes or a license. It may require reading and studying the Bible. Plan as much as necessary. Put your faith in God and decide right now to continue putting your faith in God regardless of the outcome. You cannot forcibly guarantee a result. Faith is essential, but it is faith in God as one of His children, not yourself. Confidence, yes, elevated self-esteem exhibited by arrogance, no. Mystical outcomes that cannot be explained by known science are possible. If you are the channel for the power that can only come from God, then realize that in the final analysis the outcome is always in God’s hands. Humanity, you and I, were engineered in God’s image. As such, the Christian will be in an enjoyable relationship with Him for all eternity. But that does not make us gods. Because you willed for something to happen, which did, does not mean God’s power worked through you. Caveat: As a believer that God works through, realize you have more to learn and some of that must come from the Holy Spirit Himself. There is an interplay between faith and mystical power. Many people claiming to teach others how to excel in the Christian faith have gotten this wrong. Seek God with all of your heart; ask Him to teach you. This article will suggest the arts as one possible way to influence you toward Christ-likeness. Anything that influences toward Christ-likeness should be deeply reflected on.
To grow spiritually is to be transformed into what God wants you to be. Think of this as tuning a musical instrument for the purpose of producing something of beauty: you. What is beauty? It has been said that true beauty comes from the inner person, not the outer.
Arts
Places of worship are intended to glorify God. They make use of the arts for various purposes. Stained glass windows depicting scenes in harmony with the Bible and worship of God can be a mnemonic, causing us to recall a truth to meditate upon.
Does it matter if an unpaid or paid artist did a stained glass portrayal of something worshipful? Does it matter if the artist was given food and a place to live for their work? Does it matter if the artist earns a living this way, or is getting rich? I suggest not. What matters is if the artist’s product directs men’s and women’s hearts toward God. Let us say that music has helped you enter into a focus on God, some sense of peace like what we could attribute to the Holy Spirit. From music theory and personal experience, we know Music can induce or stimulate emotion. So, if you find music that influences an emotional state compatible with the following verses, you may want to thank God for it.
(Php 4:7-8 NIV) And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Here is where a thought experiment is appropriate. We engage in experiments to test an idea or reveal a relationship. Suppose you find music that effectively directs your thoughts and emotions toward compliance with the verses above. Then you learn that the artist who produces it is becoming rich from their music. So, your sense of ethics causes you to think the artist must be greedy. They produce worshipful music motivated by greed, the desire for money. Question: Do you keep using the music that formerly brought you into a sense of worship? If you choose not to keep using music because all you think about is the artist’s supposed greed, that is on you. Perhaps the artist needs to change, but know this: there is a release available to you from this snare and it can come from God. When God releases you from being angry at the actions of another, you will have cause to rejoice.
An Account of One Man’s Healing
Not long ago, I heard a pastor who did all he could, including prayer, to forgive a group of people from years ago. But he still did not have a release from whatever happened. He continued saying that while in the audience one morning at a church service, in the front row on the right, something unexpected happened during worship music. Immersed in the music, which had directed his focus on God, as if from nowhere, he experienced forgiving those who had hurt him. I suggest he recognized God at work because he did what he could to nurture a relationship with God through the Bible, prayer, and other Christians. Our heavenly Father expressed His tender love for the pastor through changing him on the inside, the inner man. The man was not trying to work himself up somehow by self-talk. The man allowed the music to influence him toward communion with God; the transformation happened as if from nowhere. The music effectively guided him into a worshipful state of his God.
What does that mean? How are we to understand what he experienced? The man’s attitude toward worship music could have been to reject it. He could have thought, I am a mature Christian and will exercise self-control and worship God on my terms, but he did not. Perhaps in an earlier part of his Christian walk, he had preached against worship music due to music’s capacity to manipulate emotions, as taught by music theory classes. I am the captain of my own life, and I will worship God my way. No. His attitude was to humble himself and accept the help of another person’s art to direct him toward a focus on God, which somehow, by the work of the Holy Spirit, became a communion with God. Just as some music can create a distraction and tension, sending our thoughts away from God so it can guide us into a state of receptivity to Him, anything that influences you into communion with God has been shaped, perhaps inspired by God.
Do you think God randomly gifted the pastor with a transformation of the inner man, and the music experience was a coincidence? The man humbled himself before God and engaged in perhaps a child-like adoration of God. Sometimes the words matter, and sometimes they don’t. That is why you can find songs that repeatedly use the exact phrases (within one song). Communion with God, the first step toward a deep sense of being in Him, is an action of the Holy Spirit.
A miracle that only God can do. This was not by his effort, his work, or his renewing of his mind, but by God. God gifted him with forgiveness. When I heard this pastor speak on the topic, giving glory to God for what God has done, he was jubilant. You could see it in his face and hear it in his voice, God loves him, and he knew it, God gifted him with a change in the inner man that he could not explain any other way. The man’s sermon content spent little time testifying to what he had experienced. Perhaps he thought that those who will understand will quickly grasp what happened. We should think of discerning God at work as a gift from Him. But realize you and I must decide to pray daily, read the Bible daily, and congregate with other believers in the name of Jesus. Some reading this will know exactly what he was experiencing in the music, and you have a testimony to what God has done for you. The more time we spend with God, the more easily we recognize His workings.
Let us engage in a thought experiment. Suppose the pastor had learned that the artist who wrote or performed the music was becoming wealthy from it. Suppose he also reasoned that rich people are greedy and so the artist must have a profit motive, that money is what drives him to write or perform music. Now, suppose he decided never again to use that artist’s music for worship. Who has the problem? If the artist is greedy, he has an issue that should be corrected. But what about the man in the audience? What about you and me? If we reject what once brought us into a worshipful state, consider the possibility that we have a problem, regardless of the artist. You may choose to reject the art, but likewise, you may choose to continue using it in worship. If you simply can’t use the art with a clear conscience, take it before the Lord and be patient.
Someone reading this has had the following experience. Another Christian walks up to you, puts their hand on your shoulder, and says, Someone has been stealing cash from the store; I’m praying for you, brother. Here can be the absurdity: you may know with complete confidence that stealing money has never been a temptation you have had to deal with. The effect on you could be that you will never do that to others. As we learn obedience, He will give us sentences to say. Regardless of what that may be, as we begin to talk, we should do so in a state of sensitivity to God in the moment. However, do not assume you are God’s spokesperson and must try to make the person feel guilty of wrongdoing. There are many other possibilities for what God is accomplishing. We conclude that God may not reveal a secret sin in the other person’s heart to you. Instead, without planning, stay focused on God as you speak, and whatever you say, say it in gentleness, expressing the love of God through you as He gives you the words.
Challenges/Future
A man reported the following. One season per year, volunteer work at his church is available every night as an outreach to the community. One season, he was recovering from a respiratory infection that took a long time. The volunteer work was outside, and he complained several times about the health issue preventing him from volunteering a single night. On December 21, while driving, he plans an efficient path for errands and the tasks he will do afterward. At some point, he decides to put some worship music on in the car and perhaps it will guide him into a communion with God. When that occurs, it is because of a decision we make, but that is not the source of the experience; God is. Strong emotions came over him as if from nowhere, tears flowing down his cheeks. He said he remembered thinking this was bizarre as he had no explanation. After this deep experience, he felt clear, ready to continue the errands, and this by the time of his next stop.
On December 23rd at 7 PM, he felt a change in the upper part of his body. He couldn’t describe it, and it was brief, like perhaps one second he said. He also could not localize the change except somewhere in his upper part. Instantly, perhaps before the one second of sensation was over, he knew he was no long sensitive to outside air. He knows he can volunteer on the night of December 24. What do you think the man’s next thought was? Joy, jubilee, praise? No. Here is what he said. His first thought the moment of change was that it is cold out, it might be raining, and no one expects me. Perhaps he will not go, it will be OK. Later that evening, he realized that God had done this to enable him to volunteer on the last night of the event, December 23rd. With that realization, he decided to volunteer but all the while thinking, well, I can always leave early if I have symptoms. He proceeds to serve that night for the full duration. No adverse reaction to the outside air. Before December 23rd, a four-degree change in temperature triggered symptoms.
A few days later, he remembered the time of worship music in the car with the peculiar emotional response. God gave him the desires of his heart, in a way and at a time he did not expect. For what purpose? The man could not take credit for changing himself, God was glorified. God’s timing allowed him to participate in the last night of the seasonal event.
Pride
Do you reject worship music because you will not let another person manipulate your emotions? If you do, is that pride? For some of us who previously rejected Christian music, it was pride in our past.
Conclusion - That Which is Beyond Your Control
Are you concerned about your country, city, law and order, and economy? Are you concerned and perhaps frustrated about a health issue? Whatever your concern, take it before the Lord. Whatever your situation, do not let it disrupt putting your faith in God. Do not let it interrupt your periods of private worship of God or church attendance. Do not accept that you can’t help but be angry at your circumstances or others. Worship God, trust God, and keep doing what you know you should be doing. Consider scheduling a morning, afternoon, or evening for a spiritual retreat. There are times when fasting[2] is appropriate.
Do you have a need that is too great for God to handle? No.
Jesus said the following. Trust Him.
(Mat 11:30 NIV) For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
A precedent for lifting hands when sincerely speaking an oath, a promise:
(Eze 36:7-8 NIV) Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I swear with uplifted hand that the nations around you will also suffer scorn. 8 “‘But you, mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home.
Notes
[1] see Glossary in the website area More
[2] some versions of the Bible do not include Mtt 17.21 within the text of the chapter. This is the verse about some kinds can only come out by prayer and fasting.
Additional Information
If there exists a religious group that maintains membership and compliance through coercion, then the members should be looking for a way out. God is real, God wants a relationship with, God wants us to know He is real by way of experience.
What can we learn from the following verse? For one, not even the author of Corinthians could detect Christ’s divinity earlier in his life.
(2Co 5:16 NIV) So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
There should not be a need to coerce the membership into compliance.
If there exists a political faction that emerges to intimidate with threats a member that leaves, than when you find out about this you should start thinking about how you might escape should you feel that the right action.
There are powers in this world we cannot exert control over for their betterment. As believers in God have done for many millennium, cling to God.
(2Co 13:14) May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.