Emotional and Mental Health - Emotional Climate

There are varying degrees of emotion in the human realm. We are not simply angry, sad, happy or fearful. We could be furious or irritated, overwhelmed with grief or unhappy, overjoyed or tickled, horrified or wary or any degree in between.

The fact is that positive emotions give birth to other positive emotions and negative emotions promote more negative feelings. Our thoughts feed off one another, and our thoughts and emotions influence our behavior.

Our negative emotions can affect our body's health as well, with psychosomatic illnesses. These are very real issues with no physical cause and can influence the longevity of our life.

Yet, when our attitude swings toward the positive, these same diseases disappear and our health actually improves dramatically. God gives us negative emotions to warn us of an unresolved conflict in our soul. It pays to pay attention to and to resolve these issues quickly.

Emotion is not influenced much by economic standing, relational status or our collection of material possessions. We can be happier as a poor person than a rich one, single rather than married, or in a one bedroom cottage instead of a mansion.

One person with horrendous life circumstances can be happier than someone who enjoys perfect health and material prosperity. Genetics even play a part in our overall satisfaction with life.

Melancholy personalities have a hard time seeing anything except through the filter of their negative persona; yet phlegmatic people will often view even the worse of circumstances with a positive outlook.

We tend to avoid people who are determined to see life negatively. Their favorite topics of conversation are their poor health and how unfair life is to them. They shoot holes in our hopes and dreams and bring us down to their level.

The presence of God's Spirit in our spirit is the biggest controller of our emotions; however, we also have the power to choose what our mind dwells on and what we allow to influence our life.

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that negative attitudes and feelings will prevent us from walking in Your Spirit (Galatians 5:15-25). They often deny us the opportunity to achieve Your preordained will for our life (Ephesians 2:10). We want to walk in Your ways and avoid the pitfalls caused by prolonged negative emotions

Help us to develop positive habits that will breed contentment and serenity. Cause us to take frequent moral, emotional and physical inventories in order to have the opportunity to bring any issues to You for resolution. Thank You for abiding in us and with us and for not forsaking us on this earth.

Thought for the Day:

As we face the sun (and the Son), we see a bright future and the only shadows in our life end up being behind us; people will remember us more for our attitude about life than for what we actually say and do.

There is Still Time

God is merciful as well as righteous. He never sends judgment on a person or nation until He first sends a multitude of warnings through prophets, nature, inner promptings in our soul or spirit and the natural consequences of our behavior.

He does not want anyone to perish, but for everyone to share in His blessings of eternal life. He is like a mother hen who wants to gather her chicks under her wings and protect them all (2 Peter 3:8-10; Matthew 23:37).

In these later days, God ramped up natural disasters, wars around the world, a famine of His Word; and He allowed the rapid growth of debauchery in our world in order to call us to repentance.

Yet, the pride and rebellion of many cause them to ignore His warnings and His attempt to draw all men to Himself (John 12:32). People think they know better than God and disdain Him for what they perceive as His failings.

Comedians turn the hearts of many away from God with their human logic and satanic lies. So many people run from God rather than into His outstretched arms.

In our modern society, men's hearts daily fail them for fear (Luke 21:26). They use suicide, alcohol, drugs and amassing worldly riches to assuage their discontent - to no avail.

Archeological discoveries persist in proving the veracity of the Bible, but this news is hidden in the back pages of annals and ignored or belittled.

Science continues to uncover never before seen species of God's creation; but they refuse to give God credit for the creature's magnificence and the fact that they thrive in almost impossible living conditions.

People also ignore the fact that these creatures did not evolve, but are exclusive in their designs and functions. They stubbornly uphold a theory with missing links as their truth.

God will continue to send warnings, tribulation and amazing discoveries to prove His existence and to turn hearts to Himself, until the day He raptures His Saints from the earth and sends His Great Tribulation on our godless civilization.

Prayer:

Father God, You attempt to draw everyone into Your loving embrace and You use every means available to bring people to their knees in repentance and belief in You for salvation. You never give up on anyone, even when they condemn themselves by their unbelief (John 3:18). 

However, there will come a day when Your cup of wrath is full and You will pour out judgment on the nations of the world in a period of the greatest tribulation the world has ever known. You will send strong delusion on the Gentiles, once this age is finished; and then it will be too late for them to repent. However, You will give Your chosen race of Israel one final chance to choose You as their God and Savior.

We praise You for Your patience with mankind and Your plan to redeem us all back into Your embrace. Teach us to humble our self under Your mighty hand and to heed Your warning signs designed to draw us back to You.

Thought for the Day:

God sent His Word full of prophecies that prove His existence, and He continues to warn people of His coming judgment and the culmination of life as we know it; He is patient and long-suffering, and He chooses to store up His wrath and to pour out His mercy on the world every single day. There is still time. Won't you believe?

Our Union with Father and Son

God is not as interested in what we do for Him, as He is in who we are in Him. A relationship is more important than a ministry (Matthew 22:36-40). It takes more time and effort, but worth the price.

Our human achievements do not impress Him and do not aid in our relationship or walk with Him. If what we do is not motivated by God's Spirit and done with His fruit-filled attitude, it is better left undone.

We cannot control the thoughts and behavior of other people, although we often try desperately to do so. The only one we have influence over by God's Spirit's direction is our self.

It is important to keep our focus and priorities spiritually minded and not blanketed in carnality. This is only possible because Jesus purchased us by His blood and God adopted us His children (1 John 3:1; John 8:44; Ephesians 2:3).

God, being a Trinity in nature and function, is still one God (Deuteronomy 6:4). We are joint heirs with Jesus of all that belongs to our Heavenly Father, which is hard to completely comprehend (John 16:15).

Jesus has the same relationship with our Father that we have with Jesus - He is in us and we are in Him, just as God is in Jesus and Jesus is in God (John 10:38; John 14:10, 23).

Jesus loves us as much as the Father loves Him (John 15:9). The Father loves us too, because we love Jesus and believe that He came from God (John 16:27).

Prayer:

Father God, eternal life begins when we come to know You and Jesus whom You sent (John 17:3). We are in Christ; and therefore, in You (Romans 8:10-11). Jesus loves us even as You love Jesus (John 17:23). Jesus reveals You to whomever He chooses (Matthew 11:27). Through Jesus we have access to You at any time or place (Ephesians 2:18).

Jesus was with You before the world began (John 1:1-2). He made His appearance on the earth many times, even before Abraham was born (John 8:58). You and Jesus are one. Once we see Jesus, we have seen You (John 10:30, 14:5-14). We look forward in great anticipation to living throughout eternity with You.

Thought for the Day:

Jesus is in us, and the Father is in Jesus - so that we may be brought to complete unity as One Body; then the world will know that God sent Jesus into the world. 

- John 17:21; 1 Corinthians 1:30