Love wins! Love is the answer for healthy emotions
ATTAINING EMOTIONAL STABILITY
What do you do when someone gives you a verbal one-two punch leaving you reeling? How do you respond? How do you recover? If God is our foundation we will weather the storms of life and the recovery time will be shorter. How do we get from instability to stability?
First of all, everyone deals with emotional turmoil at some point. It starts early in life. The baby can’t say “Something’s not right” but will certainly let you know! The toddler gets possessive when someone takes something she considers hers. With encouragement a youngster may offer a favorite toy to a playmate. In school, we learn how to get along with others. Our home life is the primary source of our interactions. Society functions best when people deal with conflict in a healthy manner.
From every generation, we hear a familiar refrain. Middle aged to older adults consider their generation or some previous one better than the current crop of young adults. They say, “Have you noticed folks have lost their mooring? What happened to decency and respect for others?” In Psalm 11:3, David expressed it this way, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
Learning should occur every day we live no matter our age. Whether we’re still in school or have finished school learning still is important. My dad used to say after he completed his formal education he then entered the school of hard knocks.
What signs do we see when the mental and emotional equilibrium goes awry? What symptoms display themselves for others to see when people get out of control? Sometimes,they get into fights and sometimes it ends fatally. They certainly fight themselves, and some lose the battle for life. Those of us who remain alert can sometimes help if we notice the potential problem quickly. That is, we can help if we have adequate skills and strength for the challenges.
The beginning of help lies in what we do with our own thoughts. For that is where the battles rage. Some think problems go out the exit door of our life after God saves our soul. True, life can take a dramatic turn for the better. After all, now we’re at least walking on the right road. Since we’re headed for heaven now instead of hell surely life will be a breeze the rest of the way!
Before salvation, Satan may not have given us a second thought. After salvation, our spiritual eyes opened. Seeing life with new eyes made us aware of issues formerly unseen. We become a threat to Satan. Our thought life becomes his special toy box. He plays cat and mouse with us. Sometimes he treats us deceitfully as though he were our best friend letting us in on a secret. Other times he manifests as a mother bear ready to pounce on us. We have come too close to her cub, her cub being his territory we have disturbed.
Paul, the apostle prayed to God interceding for his readers which included us. He asked, “That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).
Paul wrote these words but God laid them on his heart to share. As complex as life gets, God has what it takes for us to survive and thrive on earth. The Bible is our “Mapquest” from earth to heaven giving us instructions for the trip.
By God’s grace we will draw on His strength in our inner man in tough times as well as the daily routines. There Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. He enriches us as we talk to Him about events and conversations in our life. Discussing daily happenings with Jesus helps us send our roots down deep into God. That makes us well grounded in His love. As we grow in our daily walk with Christ, He gives us greater comprehension of the dimensions of His all-encompassing love. Experiencing God’s love on an ongoing basis helps us grasp the God who is bigger than life. As we abide in His love, He blesses us with His fullness.
Out of such personal depth, we respond to emotional injuries blessing others rather than cursing them. We begin to realize others have a life too. No one lives in complete isolation. Prison guards leave food for inmates in solitary confinement. Monks have limited interaction with others in the monastery. John the apostle exiled on the island of Patmos penned the Book of Revelation as he worshiped God.
When someone gives you a verbal one-two punch leaving you reeling, consider backing off. Then tell God all about it. When the dust settles after you have given God a piece of your mind instead of the verbal puncher, try joining Paul in exalting God.
“Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Remember, “The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men” (Psalm 11:4). God hears and sees what others say and do to us and what we say and do to them. We may not live a perfect life all our days but we should see steady improvements in our character and thought life. What decals do you wear in your personality?
Shirley Logsdon
for further reading:
https://www.treadingwatertiljesuscomes.com/2019/03/20/grace-gods-grace/
