I am a very emotional person. My former husband despised
this part of me and ended our relationship. What he failed to understand is
that the same passion in me that caused me to laugh at his humor and love him
unconditionally also triggered anger when I was not given a “say-so” in
decisions that affected my life. What I failed to realize is that emotions from
my past memories were added to the emotion of the current situation and they
magnified my responses disproportionately.
Unresolved conflicts between people, even those that are
years old, are splinters that fester forever if they are not removed. If we
attempt to deal with the current situation in our own human strength, we may
succeed in changing our perspective on the issue and diffuse the emotion.
However, those same emotions will continue to resurface for the rest of our
life, whenever a current issue triggers them, until they are totally resolved.
Once I learned to analyze my current negative emotion in
order to discover the trigger, then I was able to ask God what lie Satan
planted in my subconscious memory, which fed these current emotions. This is
easy to do. Write down all of the phrases and statements that accompany the
negative emotion, such as: “I am helpless.” “I do not matter.” “I am
worthless.” “I am so stupid.” “I am not enough.” “I am not important.” “I have
to perform well in order to be acceptable.” “Pride and rage can protect me from
abuse.” “I am a victim of my circumstances.” “I am powerless.” “I am trapped,
and there is no way out.” “If I tell, it will happen again.”
If we believe that the past is no longer relevant to the
present, we are very deceived by Satan. Once God reveals a painful memory from
the past, we can ask Him to reveal the source and heal the pain. He will speak
His truth, which will dispel Satan’s lies. He may whisper a Bible verse, show
us something in nature, put the words of a song in our heart or just shower us
with His peace. Then, the emotion from the past will no longer influence our
current emotions.
Prayer:
Father God, remind us that living in denial of the pain of
the past only causes us to suffer with these unresolved conflicts for the rest
of our life. Once we come to You for healing, You carry us through the memories
and help us to replace Satan’s lies with Your truth. Search us and know our
heart, try us and show us our anxious thoughts. See if there are any painful
memories from our past compounding our current emotions, and lead us to
understand the cause and cure for them (Psalm 139:23-24).
Thought for the Day:
When God restores our soul, we have no more pain in that
memory from the past.