"Naked and Afraid"
My mother was a “prim and proper pastor’s wife.” I never heard anything close to a cuss word escape her lips.
When I was a child we didn’t have a television in our home. My family finally got a little black and white TV that we took with us on vacation.
When we returned home, the set remained in the box in the trailer. It migrated to the house when a Billy Graham crusade was broadcast. You would be right to think that television programming was carefully selected before viewing in our household.
Fast forward many years. Dad was with the Lord. Mom had moved into assisted living near my home so we could care for her. With advancing years, her mental faculties had begun to decline. She didn’t always remember names, but was happy to greet visitors.
As she grew more frail, my mother spent hours across from the TV in her room. Between naps she’d watch the occasional game show, but mostly she was tuned into cable news.
One day my son Josh stopped for one of his frequent visits. My mother was in her comfy chair – and tuned into a cable show called “Naked and Afraid.”
Shocked, Josh asked, “Grandma, what are you watching!?”
“I know,” said the prim and proper pastor’s widow. “Isn’t it awful?”
“Then why are you watching it?”
“I don’t know where the remote is. Can you help me find it?”
“Naked and Afraid” is an apt metaphor for the spiritual battle that takes place in our brains. The Enemy of our souls continuously broadcasts on multiple channels. Some programs are clever deceptions. Some are seductive invitations to disbelieve and disobey.
“Naked and Afraid” is the “fear channel.” The programming is filled with slanderous accusations to get us to doubt the goodness of God and the sufficiency of His grace. It’s the voice in my head that says, “You’re a no-good sinner. How can God [love, forgive, use…] you?”
Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, our sense of guilt stems from our disobedience. They literally were naked and ashamed, hiding in fear from God. “I was afraid,” Adam testified.
Satan doesn’t fight fair. He piles on, adding momentum to our downward slide. The longer we stay glued to his “Naked and Afraid” broadcast, the faster we spiral down into the pit of despair. You have no future. You have no hope.”
As Amy Grant’s tune once taught us, listening to the Father of Lies only leads to trouble. And “if you listen too long you’ll eventually die.” The recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain are sad reminders of that reality.
But many times we have listened so long to the Evil One’s programming that we begin to own the voice in our heads. “Don’t believe everything you think!” is good advice.
Even better advice: change the channel.
The Holy Spirit is also continuously broadcasting. The challenge is, His “still small voice” is on only one channel. And too many times it seems we “can’t find the remote.”
Victory in the spiritual battle begins with paying attention to which station I’m tuning in. And as soon as I recognize “Naked and Afraid” or other fare offered by LBC (Lucifer Broadcasting Company), I need to change the channel – the quicker the better.
The Holy Spirit can always help me find the remote. A quick prayer for His assistance will voice-activate a change of channel to SBS (Spirit Broadcasting System) that will point to the truth of God’s Word.
Written by Wes Taber, LIFE Executive Director
How about you? Which channels do you find Satan most wants you to audit? What have you found to be effective “channel changers” in your life to get you tuned in to God’s truth to counter Satan’s lies? We’d love to hear from you.