Dharius Daniels - Trapped By Triggers

We believe God has a word for you today. 1 Samuel 18:6 says, «When the men were returning home after David killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul, dancing and singing joyful songs with timbrels and lyres. They danced and sang, 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.'» Saul was angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. «They’ve credited David with tens of thousands,» he thought, «but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?» From that time on, Saul kept a close eye on David. The next day, an evil spirit from God came forcibly on Saul. He was prophesying in his house while David was playing the lyre as he usually did, and Saul had a spear in his hand. He hurled it at David, saying to himself, «I’ll pin David to the wall,» but David eluded him twice.

On this Father’s Day, I believe I have a word for fathers and a word for everybody. Here it is: You’re trapped by triggers. Recently, I was doing some reading and came across a study performed by a group of psychologists in an attempt to find one word that described the dominant emotional state of most Americans. They conducted their research, gathered focus groups, and after their interactions with specific and diverse individuals, they identified one word to describe the dominant emotional state of most people in America: languishing. Now, I don’t know about you, but I didn’t know what that meant—I just knew it didn’t sound favorable. After looking it up, my sentiment was confirmed, as languishing means to wither, to rot, to weaken, to decline, or to deteriorate. The dominant word used to describe the emotional state of most people in America was that they were withering, rotting, weakening, declining, or deteriorating. As I reflected on this reality, I concluded that this state, although normal, is not God’s intention.

Let me be clear on something: just because it’s normal doesn’t mean it’s right. When I look at the words that Scriptures use to describe a person living their life by God’s principles—following Jesus, having His values, and perspective—I see a word that is the exact opposite of languishing, and that word is flourishing. In Psalms, listen to this: Psalm 92:12 says, «The righteous will flourish like a palm tree.» No languishing, only flourishing! The Bible uses tree imagery to depict and describe the life that believers are called and created to live—no languishing, only flourishing! «Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in it he meditates both day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water; his leaf will not wither.»

You know what a withering leaf is? It’s a dry leaf, right? Come on, it’s a dry leaf, and a dry leaf crumbles under pressure. A dry leaf can’t handle pressure without disintegrating, weakening, rotting, deteriorating, and declining. A dry leaf—a withering leaf—is a languishing leaf. They say, «No, he will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water; his leaf will not wither, and whatever he does will prosper.»

I want to know: Is there anybody who is sick and tired of being sick and tired? Is there anyone who refuses to settle for less than God’s best regarding the emotional quality of life that He intends for believers? Now, if the Scriptures say we should be flourishing, and in reality, it is my assumption that if you asked the average Christian honestly, they would say they are languishing—whoo, yeah, yep! If I went to Joe Harris' window, and we went through those cells, the average Christian, especially in the unknown cells, some of them are languishing and don’t even know it because languishing has become their norm. They assume that if they’re not languishing on the same level as before, they’re no longer languishing. They’ve become so accustomed to bad that they’re okay with bad as long as bad isn’t terrible. If the Scriptures say, as Jesus does in John 10:10, that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy; «but I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly,» then the question we need to ask is, why is there a chasm—a canyon—between what God promises and what we experience?

It means there must be something inhibiting our ability to experience life as God intended. We’ve been addressing this in the past few weeks because it is an emotional epidemic called insecurity. Insecurity is contributing to many people’s languishing. I’ll say it again: insecurity is contributing to many people’s languishing. Listen to this: although insecurity may never be completely eradicated, it can be arrested. Did you hear what I just said?