One of my favorite movies and by the way my favorite play is the Lion King. Even though it’s a children’s movie, there are so many lessons that can be learned from Simba.
One of the saddest scenes in the movie is where Scar kills Simba’s dad. Scar basically tricks Simba into thinking he caused his father’s death and the only thing left for Simba to do was run away. See Scar had to convince Simba to run away so Simba could run away from his blessing of becoming king.
Satan uses this same tactic today. He bombards us with a variety of “tests” that are meant to instill negativity so we can run away from the blessings that God has in store for us.
The most frustrating thing about the situation is that God will NOT allow us to move forward in life until we pass the test He places before us. Regardless of how depressed you may feel or how bleak your circumstances may be, God has a plan for your life (Jer 29: 11-14).
Even if you have been on the run for years, you can still redeem your blessings just like Simba did, but you have to be willing to do the following:
- Surround yourself with positive people who will uplift you. Misery loves company. You’re already feeling down and out, so don’t seek counsel from people who aren’t heading in the direction that you want to go in life.
- Admit when you are wrong. One of the main reasons Simba ran away is because he felt guilty. Mufasa, his father, warned him not to go into that part of the land. Simba had no business being in that area.
There are plenty of times in my life where I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t moving forward until I took a look at where I was and who I chose to surround myself with. Early on in my career, I chose to go to lunch with co-workers who would often attempt to wear me down about why I didn’t do or believe in certain things. Now I’ve never been one of those Christians that are forcing Jesus down your throat or praising God every 5 minutes.
However, if they asked me to happy hour so I could go get drunk with them (by the way, these are their actual words not mine), I would always say no. By the way, I always thought that the term “happy hour” was an oxymoron because getting drunk seems like an incredibly depressing way to spend your free time.
Anyway, I would always say. “No, I don’t drink,” which led to this whole long discussion about my faith. Now even though I was not trying to change them, they thought that I was “weird” and tried to change me. Again, we live in a backward world. I never understood why my choice to remain sober was an issue, but anyway, I allowed my insecurity to get the best of me and compromised by going to lunch with these co-workers.
God already showed and told me, “Tosha, they don’t accept who you are, leave them alone.” Yet, I chose to unnecessarily put myself in situations that caused me pain. I was constantly feeling defeated until I started to do my next point…
3.) Remember who I am in God’s eyes. I got tired of feeling defeated. My co-workers were doing everything in their power to emotionally bully me. Constantly blaming me for their own shortcomings, critiquing my work or choice of words, giving me extra busy work, accusing me of not being a team player because I refused to do their job at the last minute, not wanting to sit by me in meetings or giving me weird/ unfriendly looks.
All of this happened because I was truthful in how I responded to their questions, in why I didn’t want to do, believe or behave in certain ways because I was a Christian. Satan goes out of his way to get you to forget who you are.
Simba forgot that he came from a royal background until he took the time to remember the advice that his dad gave him and then received further confirmation from Nala which gave him the confidence to do #4 which is to fight back.
4.) Fight back. I don’t care how far gone you think your life may be. You can redeem the time you have left by fighting back. Don’t accept the negativity that others project onto you. Life and death are truly in the power of the tongue. You have to be willing to fight for your happiness in this world.
In order to win the battle, you must allow God to lead you in your quest to fight back. You’re going to start seeing how those evil people’s deeds and thoughts don’t affect you anymore. Don’t get me wrong, it will still make you angry and you do have the right to defend yourself (The Bible tells us in Eph 4:26 … “to be ye angry and sin not…”) but their actions won’t leave you feeling trapped and depressed. The reason many of us feel this way is because we know deep down we’re living settled for lifestyles.
Simba knew he wasn’t meant to wander aimlessly through life. He knew he was meant to rule. He got tired of living away from his family. However, he couldn’t step into his destiny until he learned to control his mind. I was trying to fight Satan using my own strength. Once, I went to God and asked Him how to fight back I was able to start winning my battles and defeat those demons.
5. Last but not least, you will finally obtain and maintain your goals through humility. Simba was mindful of all the troubles he wen through in life in order to get to the point in time where he became king. He didn’t allow his newfound power to get to his head. He shared his knowledge and experiences with others.
We must let our light shine as well. There’s nothing new under the sun. There will always be evil in this world, but through God’s grace and power we can defeat them because it is the circle of life.
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