John 14:21, "He who has My commandments and keeps the, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."
Yesterday, I shared about my anxiety sitting in the airport waiting to take the red-eye back to NJ. It was time to get on the plane. With a rapid heart-beat, sweaty palms and a quaking knees I walked onto the plane and sat down in my seat. I have no other explanation for what happened next other than that God showed up. Peace that surpasses all understanding completely overtook my heart, my mind and my body almost instantly. I was filled with thankfulness. At one point in the flight, I wept with gratitude, "You showed up. You rescued me."
I learned several valuable, potentially life-changing lessons that night about God, about addiction, about temptation, about the flesh, and about victory. This series of Victory Calls is all about sharing those lessons with you and my prayer is that I can adequately communicate to you what God communicated to me.
I learned my emotions cannot be what I base my decisions on. Did I already know that? Sure I did. Did I learn it in a deeper more practical way that night? Yes! See, it is the negative emotions that we experience that tend to tempt us to flee. To me, this is how what I experienced was like addiction. When faced with that anxiety, I wanted to flee. I wanted to make the anxiety go away. I didn't like feeling like that. So often, that is why a person drinks, drugs, uses pornography, gambles, eats, etc. They want to stop feeling the way they feel. Perhaps they are anxious, or lonely, or depressed. Perhaps they got laid-off, or given other bad news. For others it is feelings of rejection. Whatever it is, it is the accompanying emotions we try to flee from. We short-circuit the God-process by jumping in ahead of Him and taking a pill, a drink or relying on a friend.
Imagine breaking your leg. The doctor tells you that in order for the leg to heal properly it needs to be set but it will be painful. Pain is not your favorite thing, so you opt to just take painkillers instead. By so choosing you just (1) prolonged the process and (2) prevented proper healing from taking place. When we jump in with our solutions to get away from the negative emotions ASAP, we choose to (1) prolong the process and (2) prevent proper healing from taking place.
To choose the God-process means we choose not to flee but press through the negative emotions, trust God to show up, and wait upon Him for proper healing.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT, NOT, NOT suggesting there are not times for proper use of prescribed medications, for a season, under the care of a physician.
Diane
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