Emotional and Mental Health - Christ Triumphs over Evil

Rather than to allow our mental and emotional health to gain its influence from the world, the flesh or the devil, we can glean as we read from God's Word and adopt its Biblical principles and concepts as our own.

Writing verses on 3x5 cards and carrying them around with us enables us to focus on scripture while waiting at traffic lights, retail lines at the check-out, doctor's offices, school pick-up lanes to retrieve our children, etc.

Rather than to fume about wasted time, we constructively focus on the Word of God, which is life to our spirit and soul. As we set our mind on things above, we grow in our faith, hope and love, and we increase our intimacy with our Lord.

Our trials in life give us the perfect opportunity for God to prove His love and sustaining power to us, it draws us together as a couple, a family and as the Body of Christ, if we pray together for our needs.

We are all falsely accused, misunderstood, and people make incorrect assumptions about us and our motives. Yet, evil will not triumph over us, because Christ in us is greater than Satan and the people in this world (Ecclesiastes 3:17, 12:14).

God will right all the wrongs when our righteous King takes His throne to rule and reign for eternity. There will be no more tears or sorrow; no more emotional of mental distress; only peace and joy for eternity.

Prayer:
Father God, You give us respect in our city, when we support one another as Your Body, and when we walk in Your ways (Proverbs 31:23). Yet, at other times, people around us hate You, and then hate us because we love You (Psalm 31:11-13).

We do not need to please people or lead people to You; we simply need to share Your gospel with whomever will listen; allow Your Spirit to do a work in their heart; and then, let our light shine in such a way that our family, friends, associates and neighbors will see our good works and glorify You (Galatians 1:10; 1 Peter 2:12; Matthew 5:16).


Thought for the Day:
When we choose to walk in God's rest and peace, we are paving the way for difficult, evil people to encounter the Prince of Peace Himself, because He abides within us; so we can choose peace over worry and walk in serenity instead or unrest and anxiety.

Eternal Outlook

Well-meaning friends and relatives often attempt to talk us out of our negative emotions in an effort to help us to feel better. However, this only causes us to suffer more acutely.

We feel misunderstood, unaccepted and invalidated. They want to help; but they complicate our issues, and we feel more alone than we did before they tried to support us.

Their perception of our issue is different than ours. They were not in the circumstance, so they cannot fully comprehend our viewpoint.

We can help one another more fully by listening and affirming each other's feelings, rather than trying to help someone change their feelings.

We can also share a similar experience and how God taught us to deal with it, which may give them an idea on how to resolve their own issue.

Sometimes, Satan will tempt us to believe his lies, or to trust the feelings in our heart. This may cause us to reject God's truth, which compounds our problems.

The Bible is clear in its assessment of such behavior. The heart is deceptive and often wicked. It will rarely steer us in the right direction (Jeremiah 17:9).

Our thoughts influence our feelings, and our feelings will direct our behavior. Therefore, it is imperative for us to think about the positive and find the root of our negative emotions (Philippians 4:8).

This is particularly difficult for people with a melancholy personality. We always see the glass half-empty. Yet, God's Holy Spirit will replace our destructive tendencies with His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Negative thoughts signal a need in our soul: a slight to mourn, forgiveness to grant, a need to meet, an idol to cast down, faulty thinking to correct, etc.

As we focus on the eternal, put temporal issues in Godly perspective, and take an inventory of our soul in order to meet our own needs, we find more peace and joy in life. 

Prayer:

Father God, we often feel life's issues with a depth of emotion, which is difficult to explain in words. People want to encourage us and help us to restore our joy, but they often come across as indifferent and uncompassionate.

Help us to comfort one another with Your love within us and to show patience and genuine concern. Remind us to view the issues of life from Your eternal perspective, rather than our limited earthly standpoint. Enable us to learn to laugh more and not to take our self or life so seriously.

Thought for the Day:

As we fully grieve our losses, we can change our focus and find the joy of the Lord regardless of our circumstances.

Warning Signs

 

Stress, anxiety, fear and anger are warning signs that someone is forcing us to do something that disturbs our peace in some way. They indicate that our soul – our thoughts, will and emotions – feels insecure, overwhelmed or abused in some way. In short amounts, stress helps us to perform under pressure and to motivate us to do our best. However, continual stress is unhealthy.

If we ignore the signs of stress, we end with:

• cognitive problems such as lapses in memory and concentration, worry or poor judgment;
• emotional indications such as moodiness, agitation, isolation and depression;
• physical issues such as aches, pains, bowel issues, chest pain, frequent colds and sexual dysfunction;
• behavioral symptoms such as loss of appetite, sleeplessness, procrastination, addictions and nervous habits.

At the core of these reactions is fear: fear of failure, rejection, another’s opinion and the unknown.

The Bible offers many remedies for stress. For instance, James encourages us to be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:19-20). Normally, we speak before we think. We say the first thing that comes to our mind. We often take pride in the fact that we “speak our mind”. We fail to use good judgment prior to expressing our opinions. That is why it is important to be slow to speak and to think before speaking. If we are quick to hear and slow to speak, then we will also be slow to express anger.

When we allow our negative emotions to erupt in rage, profanity or sulking, they ruin our testimony as a Believer, increase the stress in our life and cause others to have a very bad day. Sometimes, we feel negatively because we do not hear what the other person is really saying: either because they chose the wrong words to convey their thoughts and feelings, or we misunderstood the intent of their words or took them out of context. Some people have selective hearing and filter out parts of a conversation they do not want to hear. We also often fail to hear the unspoken meaning attached to someone’s words. That is why God uses James to caution us to be quick to hear.

We do, however, need to honestly feel all of our emotions in order to stay healthy. Journaling our feelings to understand where they are coming from is a healthy option. It allows us to express those pent up negative emotions without hurting anyone else or presenting to the public a poor example of a Believer. God gave us anger to protect us. It causes us to fight or to take flight to defend our self. If we use anger for any other reason, all we ever accomplished is to hurt the ones we love (Proverbs 29:11).

Past and current circumstances affect our feelings, and expose our deepest fears. Although our workplace, home or community can be pressure-packed and the demands on our life unrealistic, we can choose how we react. We cannot blame anyone else for making us feel the way we do. That is why James cautions us to listen carefully, to premeditate before speaking and then to use anger sparingly. This will diminish the amount of stress in our life.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, help us to learn to control our reactions, to listen carefully, to pray before we speak and to use anger only when the circumstances really warrant that intense reaction to protect us. Anger is the signal that something else is going on in or around us, just like the warning light on our car signals impending issues and dangers in our engine. Help us not to allow unmet expectations or feelings of entitlement to drive our reactions towards other people. Help us to take responsibility for our actions and to always live as an example of Jesus Christ in every circumstance of our life (1 Timothy 4:12).

Thought for the Day:

Ask God to reveal the inner root of your negative emotions and to heal you with His truth.




Thank you, Zoe Novak, for the use of your lovely photo.

When You Try Your Best

Read: 1 Peter 2: 22-25

“For even Christ didn't please himself. But, as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me." – Romans 15:3

Have you ever gone out of your way and invested your time to help someone, only to have them turn your efforts into accusations against you? You give them your best, you go the extra mile, you bend over backwards to help them, and then it blows up in your face. If you did something wrong or from the wrong motive, you could take responsibility for it and apologize. But, when no unwholesome word came out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need (Ephesians 4:29), and you are misunderstood, then there is no justice in their behavior towards you.

You can take courage and solace, however, in the fact that you are in good company (Matthew 27:39). Jesus was falsely accused, scourged, spit upon, kicked, forced to carry a heavy cross in his weakened physical state and hung by nails upon a cross until He died (Isaiah 53:7). He did not deserve this treatment. He did nothing to earn it by His behavior. Yet, He was bruised and abused for His goodness and kindness to everyone He met (1 Peter 2: 22-25).

In Matthew 5:44-46, Jesus tells us how to relate to people in this type of situation,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemy and  pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors  do the same, don’t they?”

There is a higher calling for Christians. When we are falsely accused, unjustly blamed and misunderstood, we do not need to adopt a negative attitude or to strike back against the person(s) who berated us. Paul commanded that the Thessalonians (5:15) make sure that nobody paid back wrong for wrong, and he encouraged them to always try to be kind to each other in the Body of Christ, as well as to everyone else around them. Paul admonished the Romans (12:17), not to repay anyone evil for evil, but to be careful to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

We can, however, take a step back from the friendship or relationship in order to prevent any further misunderstandings and abuse. We do not need to repay insult with insult, but simply explain our actions and share our feelings calmly and without accusation.  We can bless those who accuse us, because we are called to take the higher ground. If we do, we will receive God’s blessing (1 Peter 3:9).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, help us not to pay back a wrong done to us, but to wait for You to deliver us instead (Proverbs 20:22). Help us to bless those who curse us, and to pray for those who mistreat us (Luke 6:28). Help us to work hard to help others; but when we are cursed, help us to bless; and when we are persecuted, help us to endure it (1 Corinthians 4:12).

Thought for the Day:

The real tests of courage is to remain loyal, even when we are falsely accused; to endure hardships, even when no one notices; and to stand alone, even when we are misunderstood.