Painful incidences teach us to be wary of life and
to fear the future. We imagine situations that may never occur. These are
called “worse case scenarios.”
In order to feel powerful over life, we rehearse these
invented circumstances in our imagination, trying to come up with coping skills
to deal with any event, which may possibly attempt to blindside us.
This habit causes us to squander our human assets in
time, money and energy on an event, which may never happen.
This pattern may also cause a negative attitude
toward life and may even result in depression or addictions to provide us with
an illusory defense from future pain.
Sometimes, unnecessary and malicious punishment
cause us to grow up taking our self too seriously, never learning to laugh at
our self or trust anyone in life.
We cannot even trust God, because we harbor the
false belief that He allows bad things to happen to us; when actually sin in
the world is the real culprit here.
Some people make no decisions at all for fear of
making a mistake. If we do make the wrong choice, we overreact and berate our
self over our lapse in judgment.
We worry endlessly over things we have said or
done, fearing that others will reject us. We rehash past and future
conversations in our mind, which does not help at all.
These emotions then fuel negative and addictive
habits that we use to cope with our buried feelings. We use them to prevent
ourselves from feeling our fears, or to silence the negative thoughts playing
over and over in our mind.
These thoughts may be attached to some past
experience or connected to some fear regarding the future.
When we put our worries to rest, we will find a
whole new world of creativity and expression without the fear of failure and
judgment from our self or others. We have God's pervading, abiding peace.
Even if someone disagrees with our opinion, or if
we make a mistake, we have no need to fear disapproval. Christ died to take away
our fear, insecurities and condemnation (Romans 8:1-2)
Prayer:
Father God, as long as we do our best, that is all You
require of us. You liberate us from the crippling effects of fear and
condemnation. We enjoy new mental and physical health, restful sleep and
peace-filled days without dread of the future (Proverbs 3:24).
As we seek You and focus on Your Kingdom on the
earth, You provide all of our needs from Your glorious riches (Philippians 4:19).
Thank You for healing us of our need to engage in worse case scenarios to feel the
false security they provide. We give You all the praise, glory and honor for
our freedom in Christ (Colossians 1:27).
Thought for the Day:
Serenity comes when we ask God to give us wisdom as
we make a list of the things, which we can deal with our self; make another
list of things we need to ask other people for help to deal with; and lastly
make a list of the things we need to leave in God’s capable hands.
