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Reflections of Grace 135: Illusions…

Reflections of Grace 135: Illusions…

Last updated on: October 26, 2016 at 2:51 pm by Christian Podcast Central

Reflections of Grace 135: Illusions… 2016-10-26T14:51:01-08:00 Christian Podcast Central

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The chirping came from directly above my head. I was in the dining room working on a Bible study and there he was, loudly chirping happily from my attic. I thought it odd that he was in my attic and figured he would find his way out eventually. He stayed in that one place for a while but eventually he moved to different places in the attic…over my bedroom, the living room, and then kind of landed in my office. He was so loud that my granddaughter and I spent some time looking for him thinking that he had somehow gotten into the house.

Then we realized his chirping was coming from the heater vent in my office. He knew where I was. I started considering him my pet. I would worry how he would find his way out and how he was finding food. bird-2

My husband even decided one day to get a ladder and go into the attic and find him to shoo him out, but I wouldn’t let him. Because I kind of liked hearing his chirping. It made me happy. I figured he was eating bugs in the attic.

Over the time of a few months he became a familiar friend that made me smile when he let his presence known.

Then we discovered we had termites. We had to have the house tented and fumigated. I was so sad that my pet bird may die. I expressed my dismay to close friends and family and they all sympathized with me.

And I prayed.

I prayed that Jesus would somehow help my friend survive the onslaught of poison that was about to transcend his home in the attic.

We had to leave the house for a couple of days and when we returned I waited to see if I would hear his poor little feeble chirping once again, as I knew he would be at least sick from the poison.

And then I heard him! He made it through and there he was again, in my office, chirping away.

And I thanked God.

Such a small thing.

One night as I was showing the ladies of my bible study a You Tube video on a used computer book that had been gifted to us from a friend, the bird chirped.

I was so excited and I said to the ladies, “Hear my little bird? He has been living in my attic and even survived the tenting.”

They were looking at me with that “deer in the head lights look”. I said, “What?”…they said, “you are kidding right?” I said, “No, he really is up there…listen!”

At that point they literally fell out of their chairs laughing. Especially when I told them about praying for him. They then gently told me my little chirping bird was coming from the computer that had been given to us…someone had programmed it to chirp when there were updates. sad

Stunned!

I was in shock and embarrassed,

And somehow sad…

Like I had lost a friend…

And when my husband took it out of the computer, I had to say good-bye to my friend.

I was disillusioned.

The moral of this true story?

When you are disillusioned with life it is because you have been living in an illusion. You created your own scenario and wanted to believe it, even though many times you already know in your spirit it is not real.

Oswald Chambers said in his book, “My Utmost for His Highest”,

“Disillusionment means having no more misconceptions, false impressions, and false judgments in life; it means being free from these deceptions. However, though no longer deceived, our experience of disillusionment may actually leave us cynical and overly critical in our judgment of others. But the disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the point where we see people as they really are, yet without any cynicism or any stinging and bitter criticism. Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are; we are only true to our misconceived ideas of one another. According to our thinking, everything is either delightful and good, or it is evil, malicious, and cowardly.”

“Illusions are a false way of looking at whatever mindset we are in.”

Disillusionment means a loss of false belief. unhappy-person

To be disillusioned is to be disappointed by destroyed illusions.

Illusions are untrue ideas and beliefs that we acquire along the way.

My bird was an illusion.

But on a more serious note, my unreal expectations, or illusion, that people will never fail me will undoubtedly lead to my disillusionment.

The more illusions we can be rid of along the way the better. It is sometimes so hard to have our illusions challenged, that we prefer not to grow any further, and to keep our illusions intact.
We don’t want to accept that people are not perfect. We don’t want to believe that the world is so opposed to God. We think we will never know doubt, sadness, or any kind of lack. If that were so how would we ever have the fruit of His spirit developed in us and strength of character?
These illusions can rob us of the fruit, which the Holy Spirit wishes to produce in our lives.

Illusions are a false way of seeing things. Revelation is the true way to allow God to reveal truth to us.

Choosing to live in an illusion is the same as choosing to live in denial.

If you are DIS-illusioned right now, it is because you were living in an illusion over something in your life.

Denial will lead you around Mt. Sinai a few times, until you accept truth.

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