The Inspiration of a Baked Potato
All it takes is to make myself a baked potato with all the fixin’s to open the memory bank of playing that old game “Hot Potato”! Well, it wasn’t actually playing with a baked potato, but that’s what the game was called when I was a kid. We were in a circle and we tossed around a ball, instead of a potato, but the object was to pretend it was a very HOT potato. It was way too HOT to hold so we wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. Either music was played and stopped or someone was designated to shout out “HOT” and whoever was holding the “potato”….er…ball would be out of the game. It was great for practicing motor skills involving eye-hand coordination and catching.
Of course, I’m going to parallel that game with another real-life scenario for casting our cares off as quickly as we would toss away that baked potato/ball. It’s time for us to play that hot potato game with our worries, concerns, challenges, fears, and any other taunts and smack talk that the enemy is throwing at us. He plays all kinds of mind games with us that makes us think the worst. I’ve learned the best way to “cast off” his lies is to quickly replace them with God’s Word just like Jesus did when the enemy was smack-talking Him. Jesus would always come back with the words from scripture “It is written……” And we come back with God’s Word as we say “It is written… “I am more than a conqueror. I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me. Greater is He Who lives in me than he who lives in the world. I am loved. I am a child of God.”
It’s time to play offensively against our arch-enemy #1, with the power of God’s Word and His Spirit within us. 1 Peter 5:7 says “Cast all your anxieties on Him (God), because He cares for you.” I love that. Casting is like playing Hot Potato – getting rid of that potato as soon as possible and getting rid of our worries and anxieties by casting them on He Who is our worry-bearer, our care-bearer, and our concerns-bearer.
Anything that causes us anxiety takes a lot of space in our brains. Let’s trade those thoughts for “I am expecting things to turn around for me. I am expecting blessings. I am expecting the answer to my problems. I am expecting God to take over all my concerns. I am expecting good things coming my way. I am a faith-filled, fully devoted follower of Christ, therefore, there is no space in my place for doubt and worry. I can’t help but overcome because the Greater One lives in me and occupies all that space in my brain, in my thoughts, and in my actions. I speak to the enemy “Liar, Liar – pants on fire! I’ve read the back of the Book and you lose, BIG TIME! I win because I am on the winning team!”