HOW TO GET RID OF TOXIC EMOTIONS

                                       

By:  J. Meyer

 

We all have emotions, and they’re here to stay. I believe one of the main goals of every believer should be emotional stability. We should seek God to learn how to manage our emotions and not allow them to manage us.

 

An excerpt from the definition I found in the dictionary states that emotions are “to excite and to move out.” Think about this: You’re out shopping for a specific item you’re in need of. You’ve made a commitment to the Lord to get out of debt. You’ve promised Him to tithe and give offerings as He directs. You’ve agreed to really watch your spending and not purchase things you don’t need. But while shopping, you discover that the stores are having a big sale of 50 percent off the already marked down merchandise. What do you do? You get excited. The more you look around, the more excited you get. Emotions are rising higher and higher. They begin to move out, and part of the devil’s plan is for you to follow your emotions. 

 

God wants you to use wisdom. Wisdom says wait a little while until the emotions settle down, then check to see if you really believe it’s the right thing to do. The Bible says in Colossians 3:15 to be led by peace in making decisions. Don’t let your emotions make your decisions. A good statement to remember is this: “Wisdom says wait; emotions say hurry.” 

 

An emotional person is defined as: “One easily affected with or stirred by emotion; one who displays emotion; one with a tendency to rely on or place too much value on emotion; one whose conduct is ruled by emotion rather than reason.” Be honest with yourself in this area. If you believe that you’re not managing your emotions, begin to pray and seek God for emotional maturity.  

 

In the past I experienced a lot of ups and downs, or what we call mood swings. This kind of behavior was hard on me, as well as everyone around me. I felt bad about myself. People who are out of control always feel unhappy with themselves. God created us to operate with a free will. We choose what we will do and what we won’t do. There is a God-given desire inside the believer to do the right thing. When we allow our flesh to rule, we know we’re out of control; however, we’re created to operate with the fruit of self-control. 

 

Self-control is a freedom, not a bondage. You’re free to use wisdom, free to obey God, and free to follow the leading of the Spirit. You’re free not to be pushed around by your feelings. You don’t have to do what you feel like doing. You’re free to do what you know is wise. 

 

Self-control will help you feel better about yourself. When I was experiencing so many ups and downs, it also made me physically tired. It takes a lot of energy to go through all kinds of emotional changes. I noticed that as God helped me learn to manage my emotions, I also had more energy. Maybe you should stop and ask the Lord if that’s why you’ve been so tired lately. Do you let your emotions manage you? 

 

My moods were hard on my family too. After I was well on my way to emotional stability, my husband, Dave, revealed a secret. He told me that during the years I was emotionally unstable, while he would be driving down the highway after work at night, he would ponder the thought, I wonder what she will be like tonight? It’s really very sad to imagine a person in that kind of situation. My husband has always been very stable, and it’s very comforting to live with someone you can depend on to be steady and in control all the time. He was very happy for me, and himself also, when I began getting victory in this area. Children also need a stable atmosphere to grow up in. Stability is really an important issue for all of us. 

 

Jesus is referred to as “The Rock.” You can depend on Him to be stable—the same Jesus all the time, always faithful, loyal, true to His Word and mature. He’s not one way one time and another way the next time. 

 

Jeremiah 17:8 and Psalm 1:3 both instruct us to be like trees firmly planted. First Peter 5:8-9 teaches us to be well-balanced and temperate (self-controlled) to keep Satan from devouring us. To withstand him, it says to be rooted, established, strong, immovable and determined. Philippians 1:28 tells us to be constantly fearless when Satan comes against us. Psalm 94:13 says God wants to give us power to stay calm in adversity. All of these scriptures are referring to being stable. 

 

I’m going to close with these statements for your consideration: 

 

1. He who lives by emotions lives without principle. 

 

2. We cannot be spiritual (walk in the spirit) and be led by emotions. 

 

3. Emotions won’t go away, but you can learn to manage them. 

 

4. You can have emotions, but you can’t always rely on them. 

 

Make emotional maturity a primary goal in your life!

HOW TO TRIUMPH IN TRAGEDY

                                                 

By:  M. Lucado

 

What do you say we have a chat about graveclothes? Sound like fun? Sound like a cheery topic? Hardly. Make a list of depressing subjects, and burial garments is somewhere between IRS audits and long-term dental care.

 

No one likes graveclothes. No one discusses graveclothes. Have you ever spiced up dinner-table chat with the question, “What are you planning to wear in your casket?” Most folks don’t discuss graveclothes.

 

The apostle John, however, was an exception. Ask him, and he’ll tell you how he came to see burial garments as a symbol of triumph. He didn’t always see them that way. A tangible reminder of the death of his best friend, Jesus, they used to seem like a symbol of tragedy. But on the first Easter Sunday, God took clothing of death and made it a symbol of life.

 

Could he do the same for you?

 

Could he take what today is a token of tragedy and turn it into a symbol of triumph?

 

We all face tragedy. What’s more, we’ve all received the symbols of tragedy. Yours might be a telegram from the war department, an ID bracelet from the hospital, a scar, or a court subpoena. We don’t like these symbols, nor do we want these symbols. Like wrecked cars in a junkyard, they clutter up our hearts with memories of bad days.

 

But could God use such things for something good? How far can we go with verses like Romans 8:28 that says, “In everything God works for the good of those who love him”? Does “everything” include tumors and tests and tempers and terminations? John would answer yes. John would tell you that God can turn any tragedy into a triumph, if only you will wait and watch.

 

Could I challenge you with a little exercise? Remove the word everything from Romans 8:28 and replace it with the symbol of your own tragedy. For the apostle John, the verse would read: “In burial clothing God works for the good of those who love him.” How would Romans 8:28 read in your life?

 

In hospital stays God works for the good.
In divorce papers God works for the good.
In a prison term God works for the good.

 

If God can change John’s life through a tragedy, could it be he will use a tragedy to change yours?

HOW TO BE CONVINCED OF THE NEED TO GET A REAL EXPERT

                                   

By:  F. Kong

 

On a recent trip to America, something beautiful and then something sad happened. I was one of 4 speakers invited to speak in a conference and in that gathering I saw someone I knew who left our country some 10 months ago, abandoned his job, took his employer’s money and even abandoned his family to look for opportunities in the Land of the Free. 

 
I saw him and he saw me. I could see how uncomfortable he was especially when it was my turn to speak and the subject matter I covered touched on integrity. He sat way at the back and tried helplessly to hide behind a taller person seated in front of him but he knows and I knew that I could see him clear from where I was.  I talked about the foolishness of searching for momentary gains in exchange for long term good. I talked about the stupidity of being unfaithful to one’s marriage. I talked about the tragedy of having a family neglected and having them grow up later hating their irresponsible and unfaithful father. I was hoping that I could talk some sense into him. The guy has got 2 more months on his extended visa and what happens after that?  

 
After my talk, he approached me and started apologizing. I reminded him he was apologizing to the wrong person. He simply needed to go back home and repair the damage and that America offers no future for someone like him. But guess what? He gave me a long list of reasons why he had to do what he did. That his wife has left him for another man, that he’s planning to work for the legal papers so that he could bring his 3 kids with him and stay in America, that he is looking for a job with good pay and after patiently listening, I simply said this.

“Friend, this conversation is absolutely useless. You are not asking me for advise. You are simply offering me justifications for your sinful actions hoping that I would concur with what you did. But I’ve got news for you. I won’t! You’re living in sin and God could never bless you if you persist to stay that way.”

Sensing the need for me to be frank and firm, I said, “You know what? You will simply turn out to be another story in my lesson that I will deliver somewhere someday. The story remains the same but the characters simply kept changing. You have not learned and you’re still doing things your way instead of doing things God’s way.”

With that we shook hands, we hugged and one look at his eyes tell me that he’s still unconvinced that his life is now headed for the dumps.  Still doing things his way and not God’s way.

 

Now doesn’t this speak a lot for many of us too?  We’ve had some seemingly impossible situations in the past ourselves. But let me ask you a question.  If your Swiss watch stops working, you don’t sit down at home with a screwdriver and start working on it yourself? Or do you bring it to a watchmaker? Of course you take it to the specialist.

What if you do work on that watch and then you take it to the specialist?
“Sir, my watch stopped working.”
“Oh really, let me take a look at it…….What in the world have you done to this lovely watch?” The watchmaker would ask? And you would be embarrassed.

 

You see my friend in America has attended bible studies and worship services for many years now. He knows the bible and he knows that without God there just isn’t anything we can do. But that’s just the problem isn’t it? The Christian life is not about knowing verses and attending services. It’s all about obedience.

God’s main problem with man is his insistence to be independent whereas God wants us to depend on Him alone.

I think about my friend and I shudder at the thought of how his future will be. His family as well. But then this is a free country. Every one is entitled to his own mistake and tragedy and no one but him can help him.

If you’re going through a difficult time right now, and you are facing an impossibility, leave it in the hands of the specialist. Refuse to calculate. Refuse to doubt. Refuse to work it out by yourself. Refuse to worry or encourage others to worry. Trust God, follow Him and He will guide you to the right path.

Oswald Chambers says: “It is not our trust that keeps us, but the God in whom we trust who keeps us.”

HOW TO KNOW IF YOUR FAITH IS WORTH THE LEAP?

                                   

By:  G. Markland

 

In today’s culture, many people have the opinion that we should live by our own standards, oblivious to the Word of God. Some want the blessings of the promises of God, without subjecting themselves to obedience to God. However, to truly be happy and fulfilled, we must examine ourselves in the light of God’s Word and live by it.

 

The Bible says, “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105 NLT).

 

The stress and tensions of life become more unbearable when we live in selfish disobedience to the Word of faith. Yet simple submission and obedience to God’s Word relieve the stress that disobedience and today’s culture impose. Doubt is crippling, but faith is empowering; so make that leap! Faith in action brings victory!

 

The Bible says in James 2:26, that faith without works is dead. I have learned that faith with works (action) is alive. Faith without works (action) can become an unfulfilled fantasy. For if I have faith that God is leading me, but I do not follow or act on it, then faith turns to doubt and my inaction leads to death; the death of my faith and the death of my dream. This is a horrible state in which to exist.

 

Unfulfilled faith creeps into one’s life like oil into water. Just as oil pollutes, leaving a nasty film which ruins the purity of the water – so doubt, solidified by inaction, covers the purity of faith; rendering it polluted, unfit, and unusable. Faith activated by works (action) skims the doubt that covers the water of life, cleans it, and recovers the purity of the gift that obedience brings to fruition.

 

We must be doers of the word and not just hearers. It is so human to hear the word, rejoice in what we hear, and then…. ponder. Pondering plants seeds of doubt, which grows into the mighty tree of procrastination, that bears the poisonous leaves of inaction.

 

“But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do” (Psalms 1:2 NLT).

 

We must be like good soldiers and jump to attention, springing into action at the orders of our commander, the Lord. But what do we do instead? We hear the order and then prepare to jump, but inaction and hesitation cause us to get caught in the preparation, and we fail to jump. What a sad sight, to see the army of the Lord procrastinating before Him! How undignified!

 

It is better to jump and fall, than be stuck squatting down to jump. Squatting is a horrible place to stay. You can’t sit down. You can’t rise up. You can neither rest in your success nor stand in the knowledge of a job well done. Go ahead and jump! You can ask how high on the way up! Better to relieve the tension and stretch in the jump than to live with the constant strain of being stuck in the squat. Obedience in the jump is the better way. Make that leap of faith. We’ll see you on the way up!

SETTING ASIDE OUR OWN AGENDA

                                 

By:  Blackaby

 

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. (Ephesians 3:20)

At times we feel as if we could impress God with all we are trying to do for Him and His church. Yet God has yet to be impressed with even the most grandiose human aspirations (Ps. 8:3-4). You will never set a goal so big or attempt a task so significant that God does not have something far greater that He could do in and through your life.

 

Saul of Tarsus worked harder than anyone else to impress God with his efforts, only to discover that his greatest achievements were but rubbish compared to God’s will for his life (Phil. 3:7-8). Our problem is that we become too easily enamored with our own plans. If we are attempting to do noble or difficult things, we assume that we must be experiencing the maximum potential for our lives and that God must, therefore, be pleased with us.

 

Until we have heard from God, we cannot even imagine all that our lives could become or all that God could accomplish through us. We need to remind ourselves that the Father sees the “big picture,” that His power far exceeds our limited imagination. We must set aside our own agenda, however lofty. We must never become satisfied with our own dreams, for they are finite at best.

 

When we follow God’s direction we will witness things happening in our lives that can only be explained by His powerful presence. How could we be satisfied with anything less?

WOULD YOU HAVE SMILED AT HIM?

                                  

By:  Z. Ziglar

 

The story is told of a man who went to the top story of the Empire State Building in New York for the purpose of jumping off.  When he got to the top he discovered that it was fenced in.  Committing suicide there was impossible.  As he was riding down the elevator, it occurred to him that by doing it that way he might injure or kill other people in the process.  He re-thought and decided to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge.  Since it was a long walk, he had time to do more thinking.  He decided that, if on the way even one person smiled at him, he would consider life worth living and not take his own life. 

 

The question is, had you been one of the people he met that day, would you have smiled at him and saved his life? 

 

I recognize that the question is rhetorical.  However, the fact is that there are approximately three billion people on the face of this earth who go to bed hungry for food – but there are over four billion people who go to bed every night hungry for a smile, a word of encouragement, a friendly greeting. 

 

Wouldn’t it be tragic if one of those people was your mate, your child, your parents, a brother or sister, a neighbor?  Maybe someone you work with who is a nice man or woman, but life has dealt them some cruel blows lately.  A simple word of encouragement, an indication that you know of their difficulties and are concerned, can make a big difference in that person’s life. 

 

The interesting thing is that in the process of encouraging others, whether it’s with a smile, a friendly greeting, or a humorous, encouraging thought, we ourselves benefit. So, give that smile to the person who doesn’t have one.  It could make a difference.

STOP FOOLING YOURSELF

                              

By:  M. Williams

 

According to a newspaper report, the police ticketed a New Zealander man 32 times over a 5-year period. Why? For not wearing a seatbelt.

 

Though his violations were costing him money, he refused to buckle up. So he resorted to deception—fashioning a strap that would hang over his shoulder and make it appear he was wearing a seatbelt. He got away with it for a while, but his deception came to an end when he was involved in an accident that thrust him into the steering wheel and took his life. In his attempt to deceive the law, the man was only fooling himself.

 

James, in the opening chapter of his letter, taught his readers how to avoid the land mine of self-deception. In order to avoid it, he encouraged them to be hearers of God’s Word (James 1:22). James understood that when they heard the Word, it had the potential to transform their attitudes and actions. God, through the Scriptures would get to the root of things. He would treat them as they are and not as they pretended them to be.

 

James also encouraged this congregation to be doers of the Word (James 1:25). According to James, hearing God’s Word was good, but it wasn’t enough. They had to do what it said. As the mirror of God’s Word revealed what was out of place in their lives, they were to align their lives with the truth. To hear God’s Word and not practice it led to self-deception. However, to be hearers and doers of it led to blessing.

 

Hearing and doing what Scripture says reveals what our lives are really like, not what we pretend them to be (James 1:26), and it helps us to avoid deceiving ourselves. Let’s practice hearing and doing what the Bible says and experience the joy and blessing that accompanies obedience.