Emotional Healing

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." Romans 12:1

Living our lives holy and acceptable to God is our form of spiritual worship. The very way we live our lives is our personal worship to God, not our works and not our offerings, our lives itself.

I have found that the biggest challenges in my Christian life have been the emotions I partnered with or entertained that were contrary to the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Emotions like stress/anxiety, doubt, fear, or sadness.

Doubt is natural to humans or Jesus would not have to say, "have faith."(1) I, being human, was infused at birth with a fallen nature (2) and since I gave my life to Christ, I have began a journey of realigning my flesh, soul, and spirit with the very Holy Spirit that resides within me. (3)

I felt like writing about this because there are some who are always dealing with these emotions. I want to first say, have no shame. You are not a bad Christian or a bad daughter of our Heavenly Father just because you are having this problem. He loves you, so do not let shame bury you, but know that God sees you and He has the answer.

Please take a moment before continuing to recognize emotions that you are partnering with that are contrary to the fruit of the Holy Spirit. His fruit being love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (4). You recognize them? Okay, let’s take control of them together with the aid of Holy Spirit and the word of God.

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery," Galatians 5:1. The yoke of slavery Paul is referring to is your life pre-Christ, under the spirit of this world (5). Christ has set you free of the Spirit of this world, and he set you free so you can live in true freedom. The word submit in the Greek is enechō, which means to hold in, to be entangled with, or to be ensnared with. This is what Paul is warning us not to do; to not be entangled, hold in, or trap ourselves in the spirit of slavery. In this case, do not entangle yourself with emotions such as anxiety, depression, or fear but live in freedom!

Is it a person causing you these emotions? A dissatisfaction or insecurity of self? A life circumstance? Recognize that your battle is not with these things because we do not fight people to solve problems. According to scripture, our battle is spiritual. It is against powers in the "present darkness," and, "spiritual forces of evil," Ephesians 6:12. Therefore, we cannot use worldly solutions to fix a spiritual problem.

"Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will NEVER permit the righteous to be moved," Pslam 55:22.

What a promise! You can trust Him with your burdens and He will never let you to be moved, meaning He will not let you slip away from Him and His perfect will and plan for your life.

Then there are other commands like, do not be anxious, have no fear, have faith and do not doubt.(6) As my boss Sharon Smethurst once so simply said, "you can take control over (things like) fear. Why? Because Jesus says love has no fear." Simply put right? Why can we not have anxiety, fear, or doubt, because the Bible says not to so there must be a way to live in this freedom or God would not give us a command that was impossible.

So rest in hope that it is possible to live in freedom!

"Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light," Matthew 11:28-30.

Step one to walking in freedom in this spiritual battle is so cast your burden on to the Lord. How I practically live this out is I remember my life is not my own. When I became a Christian at 22, I gave my life to Jesus Christ. I died to myself and dedicated my life to be lived by faith in Him. (Galatians 2:20). So if there is a problem in my life, I remember it is not my own, it is not my problem, it is God's problem. So when I pray, "Lord I give you my anxiety, help me," I mean it. When I pray, "Lord replace my anxiety with the fruit of your spirit," I mean it. It is not by my power or self help books that I am fixed, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I have tried working out, reading books, making money, and dancing to heal me of emotional problems. Although they were satisfying temporarily, it did not permanently fix me. I needed Jesus to heal me. As I matured in my faith and grew spiritually, my ministry responsibilities and capabilities also grew. Do you know what this meant? An opportunity to partner with stress when it knocked on the door of my mind.

Can you relate? In these moments of feeling the weight of emotions, opposite to the fruit of the Spirit residing inside of you, you need to mentally stop what you are doing in get in the presence of God. I do not mean leave work and crawl into the janitors closet. Like you, I also do not have much opportunity to get into my prayer closet in times of conflict. When I cannot leave, I pray in my mind, I think of scripture, and I meditate on the Lord's goodness and truth.

Being in the presence of God is more important than any other task or responsibility.

In Luke 10:38, Mary and Martha are hosting Jesus. Martha is hard at work being a hostess and Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus. Martha annoyed turns to Jesus and says, "Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?" Jesus responds to her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the right thing, which will not be taken away from her." Here is a perfect example, that being in the presence of God is even more important than serving God! He wants relationship with us more than anything. What a good friend Jesus is! Did you know that Jesus calls you friend? And that God calls you child? Like our earthly family, above all things, they just want to spend time with us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I do not mean that God does not want us to serve Him. On the contrary, this is a blessing to God and the Kingdom. He simply wants you to recognize your priorities and discern when to work and when to rest in Him.

I love the scripture, "But now even more the report about (Jesus) went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray," Luke 5:16. In other words, Jesus did not stay to minister to everyone who came to Him. Can you imagine coming to church on Sunday morning and the pastor was not there because he went away to be with Jesus? Oh my goodness, the thought of it makes me laugh because a religious spirit would cause so much offense! (I have a weird sense of humor). But that is the Kingdom sometimes! Sometimes Jesus stayed and ministered to thousands and sometimes the thousands came and he just left. Leaves me speechless every time.

This type of life and ministerial decisions takes discernment given by a constant relationship with Holy Spirit.

I am definitely still growing in this area and I am excited that my relationship and love for God will only grow deeper as I abide in Him.

I hope this blog encourages you in your walk. I pray you give your life fully to the Lord everyday and I ask you Holy Spirit to stir a new thirst and hunger for God in their hearts. I ask you Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of scripture and to deepen their roots in you. I pray they stand immovable in You before the world. I also ask You God to heal them of their pain and inflictions and that only the fruit of your Spirit dwells in their lives. Thank you God for everything you have done and everything you do! You are incredible. We love you, Amen.

1. Matthew 11:22, 2 Timothy 4:7, Hebrews 10:39

2. Romans 5:12-21, 1 Corinthians 15:22, 1 Corinthians 15:45

3. 1 Corinthians 6:19

4. Galatians 5:22-23

5. Ephesians 2:2, 2 Corinthians 4:4

6. Matthew 6:25-34, Mark 13:11, Luke 12:11, Luke 12:22-34, Philippians 4:6; 1 Peter 3:14, Luke 12:4, Matthew 10:26, Matthew 17:7, 1 John 4:18; Matthew 21:21, Matthew 11:23