Renewed Mind - Part 4 - God-Given Emotions

Our soul - our thoughts, choices and emotions - is a vital part of who we are as human beings. Ignoring our soul only stunts our growth both in our soul and in our spirit.  

A need for attention, dependence on others, and fear of being alone are results of abandonment issues from our childhood. Destructive acts, pouting, self-centeredness and temper tantrums all stem from deep deprivation and anger from our past.

Our lack of self-awareness and failure to accept our emotions will compound our past wounds, which we carry with us every day of our life, some of them since conception.

Our relationships suffer due to emotional, behavioral and mental deficits. Psychologically, we are stuck in the unresolved issues of our past, which prevent us from experiencing adulthood with a mature attitude.

We fail to succeed in most of our endeavors due to the lack of adult persistence, self-control and planning. Some of us are consumed with anger and unforgiveness, which we internalize.

This results in depression for which we take medication. This simply masks the pain in our soul and causes more grief as well as physical ailments such as headaches, and stomach and breathing and heart related issues.

If we allow our self to feel our anger, we can work through it to the grief buried within our subconscious mind (Ephesians 4:26). We can journal our thoughts and feelings, and ask God to help us to find the root cause of our grief and other negative emotions.

Never apologize for your emotions. God gave them to us. They are either a sign of sickness in our soul, a precaution to keep us safe, and an expression of the joy He places in the heart of His children (Proverbs 16:32, 17:22, 19:8; Ephesians 4:26-27).

After we identify the source of our negative emotions, we can grieve our losses and affirm and validate our feelings. Then we pray for God's wisdom and healing. 

We forgive the perpetrators, who wounded us and caused our grief; and we move into the freedom and rest of the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 13:5; John 8:36).

Prayer:

Father God, there are few of us on this earth who did not experience some form of abuse in our lifetime. We never learned to handle our emotions and often sin because of them. We may minimize, disassociate from or magnify our feelings; but teach us to learn from them, and to bring them to You for understanding and healing.

Help us to stop blaming our self for the abuse we suffered; to release the pent up energy from our negative emotions without sinning against You or someone else; and to allow our self to cry and grieve our losses. Then we can release the incident to You and find Your forgiveness for those who wounded us.

Thought for the Day:

God and Christ both gave us clear examples of how emotions are a normal and healthy part of life.

Hope in God - Part 2

 

   

We believe in God, not because we are naive, but because of His many fulfilled Biblical prophecies, as well as God's provision every day in our own life and for all of His Saints (Romans 8:24-25).

We do not have to hope only in what we already have; but we can eagerly wait in hope in the unseen promises of God. Our hope of living in the presence of God now and in eternity is the sure and firm anchor of our soul (Hebrews 6:19-20).

Believers in our Lord Jesus Christ have peace with God and grace in which we stand as we rejoice in God's glory (Romans 5:1-3, 12:12). Christ who dwells within every Believer by His Holy Spirit, helps us to hope in God's glory (Colossians 1:27-28).

Our hope in God assures us of a resurrection of the dead, both of Believers to Heaven and unbelievers, who condemn themselves to hell (John 3:16-18; Acts 24:15).

Believers have this hope, because by faith we turned away from our former sinful lifestyle. We look forward to Christ's glorious appearance on the day, which God already decided (Titus 2:13-14; Matthew 24:36).

Some people have known God's presence in their life from a young age. They learned to trust Him with a child-like faith. (Psalm 71:5-6). No matter when we come to faith in Christ, however, we realize that He has known us since conception (Psalm 139:13).

The Lord is our provision for all of our needs; therefore, we can hope in His presence in our life (Lamentations 3:24). Our hope is never disappointed, because of His love in our hearts (Romans 5:5).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, we pray that You and our Father God, who loves us and gives us an eternal consolation, will establish us according to Your will, in all we say and do. Comfort our hearts with Your hope and abundant grace (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17). 

You give us a far better hope than anything this world can offer to us, because Christ perfects us and makes us acceptable to You, so that we can draw near to You every moment of every day (Hebrews 7:19). We completely rest our hope in Your mercy and grace that is revealed to us through Christ in us (1 Peter 1:13-14)

Thought for the Day:

May the God of hope completely fill you with all of the joy and peace, which believing in Him gives to us, so that you can abound in even more hope by the power of His Spirit. - Romans 15:13

Life Hurts

 

There are so many hurts in this world. Our body and soul are wracked with every kind of atrocity in varying degree of horror. One of the worse is that inflicted on us at the death of our child - from one in the womb to one that is grown, but died too soon. I lost a baby in a miscarriage. At first I did not want anyone to fuss over me, because it was just a fetus, right? I tried not to grieve.

But God showed me that although my arms ached to hold this precious fruit of my love with my husband, God was now holding my child in HIS arms, and what better place for my child to be resting! I gave my baby a name and celebrated his birthday in my heart every year. This gave me hope and a blessing that lessened my grief (Jeremiah 29:11).

My beloved child may have left this mortal world, with all of its suffering and trials, but he did not miss our immortal home in heaven. Every single one of our days are planned out by God and written down in His book before we are ever born (Psalm 139: 13-18; Ephesians 2:10). God makes all things beautiful in His time (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Life starts at conception, and our precious child's soul was alive in heaven with our Savior (Jeremiah 1:5). What a fact to celebrate, in spite of our sadness of never having known our child in this earthly life. God actually creates our soul to include our personality and knits our bones together in our mother’s womb. We are amazingly made as spirit, body, soul – our thoughts, will and emotions.

No one deserves to suffer the trials of life, but we all go through them. We are united in our sufferings, but we are also united in our joys and pleasures. God uses tribulation to strengthen our soul and to allow us to draw closer to Him and to one another. We can comfort each other with the same encouragement He uses to comfort us (2 Corinthians 1:4).

Prayer:

Father God, life treated Jesus abominably. His life was cut off in His prime at 33 years of life. His mother grieved at the cross and at His grave. She watched as He was scourged, nailed to a wooden cross and allowed to hang there until His lungs collapsed. However, according to Your will, Jesus victoriously rose again from the grave. He paved the way for everyone, who will walk away from sin and embrace Your will for our life, to spend eternity with You.

Thought for the Day:

God always uses everything in our life, even the bad things, for our ultimate good. 

The Benefits of Believing

Anger previously peppered our life, and rose from the disappointments we experience from conception, and which intensified throughout the years. Some have a more violent past than others, but we all suffered from deprivation, violence, permissiveness and/or wickedness in one form or another. Salvation eliminates much of our anger. Christ frees us and heals the pain of our past and gives us courage to face the future.

The second asset we receive with salvation is the blanket of peace, which defies human explanation and envelops every fiber of our being (Philippians 4:7). We suddenly realize that we are not alone (Hebrews 13:5). We have no need to struggle through life any longer. Rather than seeing life as full of hopelessness, we see that all things are now possible, because Christ lives in us (Luke 18:27). In our exhaustion, we yoke up with Jesus and find fulfilling rest (Matthew 11:28:390; Hebrews 4:10).

Jealousy and envy no longer rot our bones (Proverbs 14:40), because we realize that God does not love another person better than He loves me. He loves us all enough to go to Calvary’s cross and bear the penalty of our shameful sins. Problems only arise when we compare our life to someone else’s and focus on what we do not have, rather than to live in gratitude for what we do have. God works all things, even bad things, out for the ultimate good (Romans 8:28; John 3:16, 3:34).

We are filled with God’s Spirit (Romans 8:9). We are able to accomplish the works God created for us to do (Ephesians 2:10), because we can do anything now that Christ abides within us (Philippians 4:13, 19). When we feel defeated, His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9; Psalm 91:15). God works in and through us as we walk in His Spirit (Galatians 5:16-25). We are still powerless alone, but Christ in us is infinitely able. We are now more than conquerors and nothing separates us from His love (2 Corinthians 9:8; Romans 8:37-39).

Prayer:

Father God, You are our Everything (Psalms 23 & 91). There is not a hair on our head that grows in or falls out, which You do not see (Matthew 10:30). You give us wisdom to face the challenges of life (1 Corinthians 1:30), and You walk within us every step of the way (Hebrews 13:5). Each day, we acknowledge You and You direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). When life worries or frustrates us, we can cast every care on Your shoulders, because You care for us infinitely more than we even care about our self (1 Peter 5:7).

Thought for the Day:

When I feel like I can no longer face the challenges of life, I realize that the King of Kings forgives me and provides me with love, power and a calm mind, which allows me to obey His will. - 1 John 1:9, Romans 8:1-2, 2 Timothy 1:7

Intimate Bond

Read: Psalm 63:1-8

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.” – Psalm 62:5 

Who holds the place in your heart as your closest friend? What words do you share, dreams do you imagine together and what joint focus do you both maintain in your lives? How intimate are you? What news or emotions do you withhold from this person in spite of your close relationship? Do you ever tell him/her a little white lie to protect your image in their eyes? Do you have more fears than fulfillment in this relationship?

Our relationship with Christ, who lives within us, has the potential to be more intimate than any human bond can ever hope to fulfill. Christ knew you before your conception (Psalm 139:13). In fact, He knew you before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4)! What human being knows you that well? Who could ever grant the desires of your heart as intimately and completely as Christ can (Psalm 37:4)?

This intimate relationship with Christ is only a prayer away. Simply admit that you are a sinner, turn away from these sins, thank Jesus Christ for saving you from the everlasting punishment, which you deserve because of your sins; and then ask Him to come and dwell in you by breathing His life into your spirit, which is currently dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).

Walking in the presence of the Lord and being led by His Holy Spirit is without a doubt the most fulfilling experience available in this earthly realm. This union cannot be compared to any earthly relationship. The peace, joy and security that God provides is second to none. Many secular organizations attest to the healing and freedom obtained by turning over control of our lives to our Higher Power.

Therefore, once you accept Christ’s atonement for your sins, He raises you from eternal death. You can now set your heart on eternal matters rather than on earthly, carnal concerns. You are now dead to the old nature and are born again into Christ’s life with God (Colossians 3:1-3).

How fulfilling is a relationship where more than half of the decisions, which are made, are all one-sided? How close can you feel to someone who insists on always having his or her own way all of the time? How often do you have to put aside your needs and desires in order to keep the peace in a relationship or in order to insure that you do not lose someone’s love in your life? This is no way to live, right?

Well, we are guilty of treating our relationship with Christ in this same manner. How much time do you devote to your relationship with Him? Do you insist on having your own way? Do you ignore His mandates and live life as you see fit? Have you created a designer God, one that is the figment of your own imagination and fits your carnal philosophy of life?

It is time to completely surrender your life to the Lordship of the true Lord Jesus Christ. Submit yourself to God and live according to His plan and purpose for your life. In His presence is the only place on earth where you will ever find fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).

How often do those closest to us on earth let us down? Christ never will! Hebrews 13:5 in the Amplified Bible reads, “For God Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless, nor forsake nor let you down, nor relax My hold on you! Assuredly not!” This verse brings us great comfort.

Intimacy with God is more fulfilling than any relationship on earth. You can share your deepest thoughts with Him and divulge your most dreadful concerns to Him without fear of ridicule or rejection. He cares deeply for all that you are, all that you do and all that you hope to become. He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank You for the intimacy You give each one of us who will take the time and make the effort to seek Your face moment by moment throughout the day. Help us to walk in Your Spirit and to do that which You give us to do. Shower us with your peace and joy as we face life’s trials and remind us to always put our trust in You.

Thought for the Day:

You are, at this moment in time, as intimate with God as you choose to be.