Emotional and Mental Health-Freedom from Negative Emotions

Journaling is a lost art form and mental health tool. It takes many avenues of expression and can be a variety of sizes and styles. Whatever fits the personality and needs of the journalist.

This is a method of documenting the events in our life and dealing with pent up thoughts and emotions. When we do not express our thoughts in words to a mentor or on paper in a journal, they will erupt from our soul at inopportune times.

                             

Sit in a quiet place and journal all of your thoughts and feelings. In doing this, you are emptying yourself of yourself.

Do not talk, sing, pray, watch TV, listen to music or answer your phone...just listen to your soul - your thoughts and feelings - and wait on the Lord to come and fill you with His comforting Holy Spirit.

It may take hours...it may take days...it may take weeks or months as it took me to get to the root of the issues which plague our soul. This all depends on how much inner and outer clutter is in our life.

We cannot be discouraged if we are not successful when we start journaling. It takes time to develop a new habit. Just remember that tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our life and our God is the God of second chances.

As we continue to journal each and every day, it will not take long to get to the root of the issues causing us unrest. Then we can follow the Serenity Principle and either deal with the issue(s) or place it in God's capable hands to resolve in His timing and way.

Once we finish with our journal and go about our day, we can stop what we are doing at the first sign of unrest in our soul or spirit- even if we just duck into the bathroom for a few minutes.

Taking time to pray allows God to reveal the source of these negative thoughts and emotions. Then, once God shows us the origin of our anxiety, anger or other negative emotion, we can repent or ask for God's help.

He may lead us to forgive, to change our focus about the situation or to serve the person, which is hurting us. It also helps to switch our focus to an eternal perspective and set boundaries around anything from this temporal world, which is causing us trouble.

Does our issue really matter in the overall scheme of eternity? If not, we can let it go and let God teach us to think like He does about the issue.

Prayer:

Father God, we ask You to give us Your wisdom to know what situations we can change, and which to leave in Your skillful hands. Give us the strength to deal with the issues that You reveal are our responsibility. Then help us to turn the rest over to You.

Help us to develop an attitude of acceptance about them. If we cannot change them, then we can praise You for them, in them, and through them, even for the negative things. By doing this, we end up walking in complete serenity and in the dynamic power of Your Holy Spirit.

Thought for the Day:

What is it in your life that is causing you a problem right now?  Can you do something about it? Then, do it! If not, then change your focus and give the problem to God.

Successful Spiritual Warfare

Prayer is our lifeline to the Trinity. We continually communicate with God in prayer through each moment of the day (Matthew 7:8). We do not need a quiet place to kneel and pray.

We pray through the storms of life, the serene times of play, the busyness of our own making and the unforeseeable issues, which life unexpectedly throws at us.

Prayer changes us, the people we pray for, the circumstances surrounding us and the spiritual principalities and powers all around us.

In chapters nine and ten, the Bible records Daniel's experience concerning answers to his prayer. One was a quick response and the other a delay of about three weeks.

In the later, when God's archangel finally broke through Satan's lines of hindrance drawn in high places to prevent the answer from being delivered, he explained all of this to Daniel in detail.

These are some of the most amazing verses in the Old Testament. It enables us to realize the spiritual warfare going on around us as a reality and an entity to take seriously.

These verses encourage us to "pray-through" in every situation and to persevere until God delivers His answer, rather than to give up after a weak attempt to petition our Deliverer.

Sometimes, our prayers are carnal and self-centered; designed too heap on our self the riches of this world (James 4:3). God does not always provide what we want, especially if He knows it is not for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28).

Yet, at other times, Satan steps up his resistance in order to discourage us from believing in God, trusting Him with our life and walking in His order for our day.

God inspired James to tell us that if we submit to God's will and resist the devil, he has no option but to flee from our presence (James 4:7-9). This is the secret to successful spiritual warfare.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for deigning to form an intimate, personal relationship with us - the Creator with the created. You desire our continual fellowship while we live on this earth and look forward to our death when we come to abide in Your presence forever (Psalm 116:15).

Your angels rejoice when one sinner repents and crosses over from eternal death into life, adding yet another Saint to Your Kingdom (Luke 15:7). You rejoice over us with singing and You love us with an everlasting love (Zephaniah 3:17). We can barely grasp the full meaning of this relationship, which You offer to everyone ever born on this earth. 

Thought for the Day:

Most people never avail our self the opportunity to enter into this intimate union with our Creator and King, because we despise the shame of the cross and resist the opportunity to totally surrender our will to His.

Natural and Spiritual Mind

 

 

The natural mind cannot comprehend spiritual truth with the intellect. Without the Holy Spirit of God resident within our spirit, God's truth seems foolish (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Without the Spirit of God, we pick and choose what we want to believe from the Bible, if anything at all. We attend church services to feel good and make friends. We may even find a place of service in the church and community.

Our inner being needs strengthening by God's Spirit, so that we can receive Christ in our spirit (Ephesians 3:16). If anyone is willing to trade pride and rebellion for humility and submission to God's Spirit we can experience salvation (Matthew 5:5).

Then God fills us through our entire being with all of His fullness and gives us the richest portion of His presence, so we become a body completely filled with all of God Himself (Ephesians 3:17-19).

As we are quiet before the Lord, He inspires us (Psalm 46:10). Christ abides within us by His Spirit, influencing our thoughts, words and deeds; helping us to fulfill God's pre-ordained purpose for our life (Ephesians 2:10).

We stop stressing over life, or attempting to find God's will, or to make a living and to amass worldly goods. We enter God's rest, and He floods us with His peace and joy regardless of life's circumstances.

God directs each moment of our day and provides for our every need (Proverbs 3:5-6). We are the only Bible some people will ever see, so let us live life in God's fullness and righteousness.

We exemplify to them God's reality, love and peace, which transcends all human understanding. We are the branch on the Vine, bearing fruit used by a lost and dying world to nourish their souls and strengthen their spirit, so that they too can believe (Ephesians 3:16; Galatians 5:22-23).

Prayer:

Father God, we realize that all of You dwells in every Believer at the moment of salvation; but Your Word teaches us that we can increase the intimacy of our union with You (Psalm 42:1-2; Zephaniah 3:17; John 14:21).

Remind us to pursue You rather than worldly gain, and to taste and see just how good You really are (Psalm 34:8; Hebrews 6:5). Your Word is sweeter than fresh honey to our mouth (Psalm 119:103). We delight in You always and rejoice in Your presence in us through every trial and tribulation we ever experience in this sin cursed world (Philippians 4:4; Psalm 37:4; Matthew 28:10).

Thought for the Day:

At the coming of Christ, the whole earth will be filled with His glory, just as the waters now cover the earth. 

- Isaiah 11:9; Jeremiah 31:34

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