Too many of us live with an uncontrolled thought life. It is possible to learn to identify destructive thoughts and make wiser choices. Instead of letting those thoughts rumble freely about in my mind, I make the choice to harness them and direct them toward truth.
I know I must walk through God’s process before I see His fulfilled promise.
Becoming more than a good Bible study girl means I separate my shortcomings from my identity and let Jesus be the only measure of my worth.
It’s tough. And yet the Bible makes it very clear that we are to make time for rest. More than just physical rest, we need to take a spiritual and emotional rest from going our own way – literally. Once a week, we are to hit the pause button on life and guard a day of rest for our souls. Guard it fiercely and intentionally – even if the demands on our schedules beg us not to.
I realized that most times it’s not the big things along my spiritual journey that tempt me to get off track. It’s a culmination of small daily aggravations I know God could fix but doesn’t. But what if instead of seeing these aggravations as inconveniences, I saw them as reminders to draw near to God?
Do not let the heartbreak you have experienced be wasted. God is still with you. His promises still stand. Soak in His truths and let them seep into the deepest places of your heart rubbed raw with uncertainty.
Yes, faith still moves mountains. But sometimes the greater act of faith is not praying for the mountain to move instantly but rather hanging in there while God helps you to move it bit by bit.
God’s eyes are on me. His face is not against me. And even if others appear to be against me, I must make sure in my reaction to them that I extend grace and honor God.
We are supposed to maximize God, which keeps our weaknesses in perspective.
The emotions that feel so intense today will ease up over time as long as we let them. We just have to watch how we think and talk about this rejection. If we give it the power to define us, it will haunt us long-term. But if we only allow it enough power to refine us, the hurt will give way to healing.
God sees within me the ability to be the one He’s perfectly designed to raise up this strong little person.
People can’t fix from the outside a perspective that needs to be rewired on the inside. Only the Lord can do that.
If things are ever going to get better, we have to acknowledge our underbellies that fuel our unglued reactions.
Old patterns of thought must be torn out, and a new way of looking at the core of who I am using God’s truth has to be put into place. My identity must be anchored to the truth of who God is and who He is to me. Only then can I find a stability beyond what my feelings will ever allow. The closer I align my truth with His truth, the more closely I identify with God – and the more my identity really is in Him.
Being full of God’s love settles, empowers, and brings out the best of who we are. On the other hand, the more full of the flesh we are, the more we grab at anyone and anything to fill that ache for love and acceptance.
I’m going to get into a funk, because that’s what I do. I will feel put off, and then I will put on that ratty robe of rejection and wear it all day long. But I don’t want to keep being a slave to my runaway emotions and assumptions. I don’t want my days to be dictated by the moods of other people. And I really don’t want the rejections of my past feeding my propensity to feel rejected today.
I had allowed to settle into the core of who I am. I talked about myself in ways I would never let another person.
In fact our brains respond so similarly to rejection and physical pain that Tylenol reduces the emotional pain rejection elicits.
Yes, I am fully loved, fully accepted, and fully empowered to say no to my flesh. Speak that truth in the power He’s given you. Believe that truth in the power He’s given you. Live that truth in the power He’s given you. That’s how you tell your flesh no. That’s how you live fully prepared in the fullness of God.
I couldn’t keep my old broken beliefs, nail a little Jesus truth to the side, and expect stability. I knew I had to stop assessing God’s goodness by how my life felt at any given time. Feelings are broken boards. Only truth is solid, unchanging, and stable through and through.