Be a duck

Do you ever have those days where you feel like an evil spirit has taken over your body? 

Everything makes you upset? 

You're sensitive and everything everyone says must be a personal attack? 

What about when someones words hurt OR someone you care about, being totally unwilling to communicate and today it just eats away at you? 

 I do!!!

I am not proud of those days but they come. I wake up ready for the day and say to myself, "Today I will be like a duck and let everything slide right off my back. Nothing will stick to me today." 

By mid day it seems as if that little duck inside of me is all of a sudden swimming in the gulf of Mexico covered in oil. Everything is sticking to me. Every look, every word conveys a negative vibe that just never sits well with me. 

There isn't enough time, enough energy or enough emotional resources to handle the constant crude you are swimming in. 

By the end of the day you are covered in oil and unable to fly out of the mess.  

Your wings are unable to work and you feel stuck. 

Nobody understands! Nobody can help! If you were able to just hide for a few hours you might emerge clean and ready to fly again.

When we feel "possessed" and are unlike ourselves- How can we sit up and start flying again?

 In Mark 1:21-28, a "possessed" man comes to where Jesus is speaking. He yelled to Jesus, Vs. 24, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of God!" 

Jesus replied, Vs. 25, "Be quiet!" "Come out of him!" 

Somedays even with every good intention we are just overtaken and we need to ask God for help. We need to recognize what is oozing from us and ask God to clean us up before we can proceed any further. 

People were amazed when they saw Jesus talk with so much authority and demanded that someone "BE QUIET." 

We need to take authority over our attitude and actions and make them line up with who we are as children of God. 

People talked in amazement after Jesus yelled saying, Vs. 27, "What is this? A new teaching - and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." 

We need to take these attitudes to God and take captive every thought. It is possible to fly out and begin to let the oil start running off.

Say to God, "Lord, help me be quiet! Help this icky yuck that I am allowing to stick to me fall off. In Jesus name!"    

Do it with authority!!! 

The longer we continue in our funk the greater the likelihood of death. Not a physical death but a death of relationship and peace with all those we encounter. 

I want to be like a duck! I want to swim to the bottom of the river, get dirty, and come up shaking it off. I want things to slide off my back. I want to offer grace and forgiveness in all situations. 

I don't want to hide from people, instead I want to love them in a healthy, Godly way. 

I want the ick of life to slide off. 

On those days when it begins to stick, take authority over it and keep swimming. 

When you are at the point when even your eyes are covered in oil, you may need to call in backup. The ducks in the oil spill even became refugees. They needed others to save their lives. It required others running in, helping to bathe them and picking each piece of oil out of the fine underneath feathers. 

We need people who are willing to tell us when we are behaving badly. 

Call in backup. Call someone and say I need help!! 

When you call in backup, make sure it is someone who won't tell you what you want to hear. Make sure it is someone who wants to see you healthy and cleaned up. 

Ask a friend to pray for you. Text them... "I am in a funk and can't seem to get out. Would you pray for me?" 

With another person you are more likely to succeed.

Allow the authority of God to break the funk you are possessed with!!! 

Allowing someone else's junk and unhealthy behavior to ooze all over you and gunk up your day is not how God wants you to live. 

Lastly, when the oil is washed away and you can recognize your bad behavior... Say "I'm sorry." Saying sorry doesn't mean you are 100% at fault, but it does mean you are willing to recognize your part in the oil spill.  

Tomorrow as you start your day, picture a duck... Whether your duck is a beautiful brown, brilliant white or a mix of both... When the ick of the day starts to hide the beauty and everything seems to stick, get away use the authority you have as a child of God and if you need to...call in backup. 

If it is an unresolved issue with someone - Don't let it go on and on and on.... There are so many scriptures that speak to not allowing issues to go on. Resolve conflict and don't let Satan have a foot hole in your relationships. He will use your oil soaked feathers to breed bitterness, resentment and make a little oil spill into a death sentence for your relationships. 

Lord thank you for the beautiful picture of a duck. Thank you for showing us how we allow things to stick, bogging us down. God we ask that you help us to recognize right away when we no longer are all shiny. Help us to call for help. Give us the strength to ask for help. Help us to run to you and not be paralyzed when we are weak. Thank you for loving us so much and providing a way out. Thank you for good friends!! Thank you for giving us back up! 

--Amen