Removal from the Rat Race

The best way to remove our self from the rat race we call life is to simplify our activities. We learn to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:15-25), to live by the faith of God's Son within us (Galatians 2:20) and to glorify God with our thoughts, words and deeds (1 Corinthians 10:31).

We focus our thoughts on God instead of the next goal we have for our life here on earth. He replaces our carnal character traits with His Spiritual fruit and leads us to do only His will for each day (Galatians 5:22-23).

His will is different for each one of us. He may call one as a pastor, someone else as a sales clerk, one as a car mechanic, another to serve Him as a lawyer or doctor, and someone else as a stay-at-home parent.

He removes us from the mental, financial and emotional roller coaster we choose for our life and puts us in a glass bottom boat so that we can see what is beneath the surface of life, as well as what is above the surface. Our spiritual understanding increases and our perspective broadens.

God leads us to restore broken relationships, resolve issues buried in our subconscious mind, to make new friends and to influence them for His Kingdom, and to be a neighbor who really cares about those living around us.

The power of God's Spirit, which raised Jesus from the dead, is an integral part of our life regardless of our vocation, social class, education and financial status.

We do not earn anything in life apart from Christ, but all that we have is a free gift, a by-product of our salvation in Christ. He provides our daily bread, like the manna in the wilderness and He meets all of our needs with His glorious riches (Matthew 6:11).

Prayer:

Father God, You complete us (Colossians 1:28, 2:10) by planting us in Your love, building up our faith, and using us for Your glory (Colossians 2:6-10). You provide us with the assurance of our salvation by filling us with Your Spirit and Your presence. Death and sin have no more dominion over us, because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets us free from them (Romans 8:2).

Teach us who we are in Christ and sanctify our soul from one stage of glory to the next (2 Corinthians 3:18). Make us a new creation who lives to serve You with every breath we take and every move we make. Thank You for firmly rooting us by Your Word and guiding us by Your Spirit to walk in Your will for our life.

Thought for the Day:

God gives each one of us spiritual gifts, talents and wisdom in order to influence the world around us for His Kingdom, to serve in His Body and to bring light and hope to a society which chooses to doom itself to destruction and eternal torment.

- John 3:16-18; Romans 6:22-23

The Healing Journey - Part 1 - The Schizophrenic Bride

As a young bride of 20 years old, I wanted to be the perfect wife. As a co-dependent, I did not want to nag or disagree - so that my husband would love me.

My uncle told me that if I was even half the wife my mother was to my dad, I'd be a great wife; so not to worry. I did learn a great deal about being a loving and submissive wife from my mom.

She lived with a manic-depressive husband. She learned to soothe the savage beast in him; but she had to learn not to take his words and behavior to heart.

She had her own interests and pursued them with a passion; yet, was home every day when her four children returned from school; and she had supper ready every night when my dad walked into the house from work.

As I started my new life as a wife, I would wince and swallow every hurt, disappointment, deprivation, abuse and neglect without saying a word, just as I learned from my mom.

I stuffed my feelings and opinions too. However, the trouble with me started because my threshold for pain was too low and my Italian temper, inherited from my dad, flared up too quickly.

I eventually started blowing up like a volcano, and then instantly cooled; but I did not realize the deep scars, which my outburst left on my husband's soul. He thought I acted like a schizophrenic.

I was sweet and caring most of the time; and then without warning, I erupted at what seemed like the slightest provocation without any apparent reason.

This problem arose because of all of the power of all of that internalized pain. The full force came out in an Italian temper tantrum when I finally did blow over the last straw - which actually did appear - to any by-stander - to be a very small and inconsequential provocation.

I lived broken, fearful and insecure like this for 22 years of marriage until my former husband decided I was too wounded for him to live with any longer. He saw no option for us but divorce.

God used my husband divorcing me as my breaking point to help me to totally surrender my life to Him. With no job or alimony, I faced the future in total dependence on God and He proved Himself more than faithful.

I clung to Christ with every rasping breath and God redeemed my life yet again. He sent me to a minister who helped me to heal from my past; and He turned my mourning into dancing and restored to me all of the years, which the canker worm destroyed (Joel 2:25).

Prayer:

Father God, no one is perfect in this life. We are all products of our upbringing, but we are responsible for our responses to life as they occur. Although we try to overcome or hide them, we drag our wounds around with us like hindering baggage. Show us clearly that Satan's lies are keeping us linked to these wounds from our past, buried deeply within our subconscious mind.

Thank You for teaching us to recognize these lies, to hear Your truth about them and to discard them as we walk away from them with healing from Your wings (Malachi 4:2). We live to serve You another day with all of the fullness of Your Holy Spirit within us. ( www.theophostic.com )

Thought for the Day:

God works out even the most debilitating circumstances in our life for our ultimate good. - Romans 8:28

Healing from Negative Emotions

Every person alive is affected by our childhood experiences. The memory of these events are stored in our subconscious mind. They shaped our opinion of our self and how we react to the world around us.

They cause many of our current negative emotions, which affect us in body, soul and spirit. These negative emotions are driven by lies, which Satan planted in each of our life's experiences.

The deep hurt, abuse, rejection, condescension, ridicule, belittlement and deprivation we experienced are etched into our subconscious mind. We have feelings of being "not enough", failures, unworthy and unacceptable.

We continue to blame our self for our negative emotions rather than the woundedness caused by our significant others, which we carried into our adulthood.

This self-condemnation causes other deep seated negative emotions to dominate our soul, such as: depression, stress, anxiety, hopelessness, and feelings of being unlovable.

The negative self-talk accompanying these feelings actually comes directly from Satan's lies planted in our soul. God wants to set us free from these lies. As we surrender them to Him, He reveals to us His Truth about them.

This requires that we reject the negative attitudes, expressions and clichés, which we collected throughout our lifetime. God exposes unconscious memories by bringing them into our conscious mind.

He sets us free from their hidden power over us and provides us with His love, security, value, sense of belonging and life's necessities that we were deprived of in our past.

All that is required of us is that we courageously and willingly accept as our own, His free gifts of salvation, sanctification, deliverance and redemption (John 3:16-18; Psalm 34:19; 2 Corinthians 4:17).

Prayer:

Father God, continue to set us free from the negative energy of Satan's lies and help us to respond to Your love and provision in our life with gratitude and acceptance. When our emotions are triggered negatively by some current event, help us to trace it back to the lie, which Satan planted during our past; and then reveal to us Your truth about the situation in order to liberate us from the negative effects of these lies ( www.theophostic.com ).

Remind us to give attention to these nagging, unresolved conflicts, so that You can heal us and free us from their ability to rob us of the energy and focus we need to accomplish Your will with our life. Thank You that those, whom the Son sets free, are free indeed (John 8:36). We are no longer bound to negative emotions, but free to have a positive outlook on each moment of every day (Philippians 4:8).

Thought for the Day:

The significant others in our past did the best they could for us from their wounded soul; as we forgive them for their faults, we set our self free to love and be loved by God and other people.