An Anchor for Our Soul

God gave us negative emotions in order to detect when something is wrong in our body, soul or spirit. They are safety precautions - flashing red lights to get our attention.

God provided them to protect us. We can take a searching moral and emotional inventory throughout the day to discern the sources of these negative thoughts, feelings and behavior.

As wounded individuals, we feel these slights and infractions on our personal space more vividly. Another person's words and actions trigger our defensive responses, which help us to survive.

However, we may find our self fearing a change or a negative response from someone that is not actually affecting our stability or security at all. It is their choice and bypasses our life entirely.

In this case, we pray for them, but do not attempt to control or influence their behavior. If they ask for our advice, we are free to give it. If we are safe, their behavior is really none of our business.

We fear the unknown aspects of life and we even dwell on eventual negative scenarios, fueled by our traumatized soul, in order to protect our self from the possible inevitability of these trying or debilitating circumstances.

We may cling to neurotic, addictive or compulsive behaviors in order to give our self a semblance of normalcy. We attempt to avoid the pain by defending our self with anger and other survival modes. We want to protect our self from further wounding.

We fill the emptiness within our soul with people, amassing worldly goods, increasing our bank account and providing our self with security in any way we can. We escape through addictions.

Certain triggers in life release a rush of adrenaline into our body and cause us to fight or flight. They hold power over our life and define our responses to people, places and events.

Triggers magnify our thoughts into extremes, which prevent us from clearly viewing a situation as it is actually transpiring. We need an anchor in order to keep our soul focused on the reality of what is going on around us.

These anchors can be a person, a piece of jewelry, our car keys, a Bible verse that we repeat as a mantra, something in the doctor's office that we can focus on to keep our self grounded in reality instead of controlled by illogical fears of the unknown.

Yet, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the only truly fulfilling anchor for our soul. Hiding under His wings within our spirit, we find a safe refuge and a high tower which provides peace regardless of the circumstances around us.

Prayer:

Father God, due to negative feelings of being unworthy and unlovable, we fear our past and do not want to embrace the future with faith in your faithfulness. Our fear paralyzes any attempts You make to set us free indeed (John 8:36), until we learn that Your faithfulness is stronger than all of our fears.

Thank You for teaching us to laugh at our foibles, to take our self less seriously, to relinquish the need for perfection,to look for the seed for a miracle in every trial and to enjoy life with the freedom of flexibility. You fill our life with Your presence, which alleviates our loneliness and anxiety. Your faith and courage within us give us the ability to face our woundedness, to heal and to walk in the freedom of Christ in us.

Thought for the Day:

There is no need to judge our self for our negative emotions and attitudes, because we developed them to ensure our survival; but now we can align our self with God's Word and enjoy the freedom of His presence and Spirit within us.

Answers to Life's Questions

There are several questions that every human being wants answered. Who are we? Where did we come from? What are we here for? Where are we going? Scientists, philosophers and researchers spend inordinate amounts of time looking for answers.

God is the source of all of our answers. He created us as His Children, for His glory and to spend eternity with Him in His Kingdom (Galatians 3; 2 Corinthians 5; Romans 8).

Everyone who chooses to believe in Christ and His sacrifice for us on Calvary's cross finds our true identity in Him. Those who refuse to believe condemn themselves to eternal darkness (John 3:16-18).

God is constantly perfecting us by His Spirit who abides in our spirit. He takes away our desire to sin, and it no longer appeals to us. We are alive to God and we desire intimacy with Him more than the temporal pleasures of sin.

God's Spirit helps us to walk away from our weakness and addictions. He searches our heart and knows our mind and prays for us according to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27).

We are Born Again by the blood of the Lamb, and God's Spirit replaces the carnal nature in our soul with the divine nature of Christ. Our eternal destination is heaven (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Jesus swallowed up death, and gave us the victory through His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:54; Isaiah 25:8). What the world views as the finality of death is actually the ultimate victory for God's children.

Leaving this earth is to our benefit, because God rejoices in the death of His Saints (Romans 8:28; Psalm 116:15). In truth, there is greater advantage for us to go Home to the glory of Heaven than to continue living here on this sin-cursed earth (Philippians 1:21).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for making us a new creation in Christ, for filling our life with Your peace and joy, and for exchanging our sin for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Through His resurrection, we have assurance by Your Spirit of enjoying everlasting life with You both now and for eternity.

You rescue us from violence and deceit, because we are precious in Your sight (Psalm 72:14). Your mercy and grace are our mainstays and ground us in this life with stability and normalcy, which only You can give. We cling to Your promises and enjoy the divine nature of Christ in us (2 Peter 1:4). Continue to mold us into sanctified servants for Your Holy Kingdom.

Thought for the Day:

Accepting who we are in Christ, and why we are different from those in the world, helps us to make an eternal difference in our world.

Loving Others as Our Self

Jesus made a point of telling us to love others as we love our self. Most of us despise our self, have grudges and disappointments and unforgiveness toward our self. We do not love our self at all (Mark 12:30-31).

Therefore, how can we truly love anyone else? We compare our self to worldly standards and find our self lacking. We listen to significant others in our life and adopt their opinion of us, even if it is negative.

We try all of our life to earn the unconditional love, respect, worth and affirmation we so desperately need. We sell our self short and give up on our self. We feel useless, hopeless, helpless and unlovable.

We are not powerful enough, rich enough, adorable enough, smart enough, talented enough, or attractive enough; we are not enough. We see our self through the eyes of others and we feel disappointed and ashamed.

However, God wants us to see our self through His eyes - as a person He cares about so much that He gave His life for us. He wants us to love our self as He loves us, and then to love others as we love our self.

We can start by accepting our self as He accepts us, just the way we are. We can make better, healthier, wiser and more nurturing choices. We can speak only kind, loving words to and about our self and others.

We can take care of our body, soul and spirit. We can accept our feelings and seek God to find resolutions for our negative feelings and unresolved conflicts. We can judge our self only through the eyes of God, not the eyes of the world.

We can stop using addictions, people, vocation and talents to make us feel better about our self. We can stop abandoning our self and taking our self and others for granted. We can stay in touch with who we are, what we need and how God is leading us all throughout our day.

Prayer:

Father God, enlighten the eyes of our understanding to see our self as You see us: as Your adopted children, co-heirs with Christ of Your entire Kingdom. Remind us to pay attention to our physical, emotional, spiritual and mental needs and to seek You on how to fulfill them.

Help us to accept our feelings and circumstances, even the negative ones, as Your tool in our life to bring us closer to total surrender to Your will and to keep us from depending on our human resources and understanding. Give us Your peace and joy as our strength. Remind us that without You we are nothing; but with You, all things are possible if we simply believe (John 15:5; Mark 9:23).

Thought for the Day:

Take the time throughout the day for a personal physical, mental, emotional and spiritual inventory; meet your needs or ask God to meet them; and then give yourself time to renew Your strength in the Lord and to rise up on wings like eagles. - Isaiah 40:31

Many thanks to Matt Milligan for the use of his photo.