part 1 of "At The Movies"
I have been excited about this series of posts for quite some time. I have been wanting to do a movie series for a while because there are times when God talks to me (and us) through movies. But we have to be listening for Him to talk. In this series, we are going to look at four of my favorite movies and I am going to share what God showed me.
For this first post of the series, we aren’t going to look at just one movie, but the devolvement of a character throughout three movies. But the idea that I want to look at comes out of Star Wars: Episode 1 which is this phrase: YOUR FOCUS DETERMINES YOUR REALITY.
This was said to a young Anakin Skywalker by his teacher Qui-Gon. While the reason Qui-Gon said this to Anakin is unknown, it is possible he told him this due to Yoda sensing fear in Anakin. The reason for this is because Anakin was asked to go with Qui-Gon, but he had to leave his mother behind, and he was worried about her and missed her.
So fast forward in Anakin’s story. He returns home to find out that his mother had been taken and was being held somewhere. Anakin finds where she is and she dies in his arms. Anakin has also started a relationship, which leads to marriage, with Padmé. Padmé becomes pregnant and Anakin starts to have visions of her dying in childbirth. He becomes desperate to stop this from happening. Palpatine begins to play into Anakin’s fear of losing Padmé as he did his mother. Palpatine tells Anakin that he knows of a way to help him save Padmé.
Overcome with fear and his need for power, Anakin joins Palpatine and turns to the dark side becoming Palpatine’s new apprentice Darth Vader. Anakin’s change in attitude and turn to the dark side is what causes Padmé’s death depicted in the visions he was having.
What can we learn from this tragic story? Here are two things…
1). FEAR COMES FROM THE DARK SIDE.
Anakin was trying to calm his fear by going to a place that wasn’t going to calm it. By going to the dark side for help, Anakin was only allowing his fear to be fueled. Just like with Anakin, the dark side fuels our fears, anxieties, and insecurities.
We see this in the early pages of the Bible when Satan tempted Eve. Satan played right into her insecurity by planting the idea that God didn’t want her to know everything. Then when she and Adam ate the fruit, they were afraid and hid from God. God asked them “who told you that?” [1]. He asked this because fear doesn’t come from Him.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” - 2 Timothy 1:7 NLT
So when we feel guilt, shame, fear, insecure, and anxiety. They are not coming from our God Almighty. They are coming from the Devil. Satan tries to use that stuff to confuse us, throw us off course, and even blame God. This is why it’s important to remember…
2). YOUR FOCUS DETERMINES YOUR REALITY
The mission statement for this ministry is “keeping Jesus the focus point.” This comes from Matthew 14:28-30. The story is of Jesus calling Peter to walk on water to Him. Peter starts off good as he remains focused on Jesus. But when he starts to focus on the waves he loses focus on Jesus and begins to sink.[2]
This is a perfect picture of what can happen to us as well. We can focus on the waves - the fear, the insecurities, the guilt, the shame, and the anxieties. When we do that, before long, that stuff becomes our focus and we can begin to sink into it all.
But here’s the awesome thing. Jesus is right there to pull us back out again. When Peter began to sink, he cried out to Jesus, and Jesus reached out his hand. Jesus pulled Peter out of the water. Jesus pulled Peter right out of his fear.
When we cry out to Jesus and return our focus to Him, He will pull us out of the waves as well.
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[1] Genesis 3
[2] Matthew 14:22-33.
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