EmotionaL Health - The Emotion of Depression

Sadness is an emotion that we will all feel from time to time. It's just a part of life. Someone will die, you will feel bad about mistake, someone will say something that hurts you...you just can't get away from those things.

However, sadness doesn't have to turn into depression. Sadness is literally a "slowing down" of everything that allows us to cope with the stress of the situation. We "slow down" to be able to preserve our sanity. However, depression will never allow you to "speed back up" to a normal pace of life, but will keep you confined to that "slowed down" life.

If you are depressed, you need to know that you can be healed from it. Depression doesn't have to steal your life away. You can move beyond where you are at right now. Here are a couple of things you can do to live a life free from depression:

1. Change Your Atmosphere

Depression can't live in a place of joy. Just as a fish can't live without water. I have found that depression lives with depressed people....Does that make sense! In other words, you can't stay depressed if you change the "depressed" atmosphere that you are currently living in.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself. It's not helping you. Change your cycle! Get up and get moving in the morning. Dress yourself up and stop wearing sweat pants everyday. Clean your house. Get your hair done. Do something that makes you feel better. You will be amazed at what that will do for you.

2. Read God's Word

Nothing will change your depression like the presence of God. God has a way of ministering healing to us in ways that we can't even fathom. God can heal wounds that you can't articulate to anyone. Let Him into your life.

Do it right now. Ask God to help you get over depression and live the life that He wants you to live. God is an ever present help in times of trouble. Don't ever forget that. If you need a good reading program to get you started, then go to www.youversion.com and check it out. It will certainly help you.

Remember life doesn't have to control you, you can control it and the way you react to it.

Something to think about,

Pastorj

Emotional Health - Offended and No Where To Go...

Okay, so Sunday was another one of those messages that we all need to hear, but nobody really wants to talk to much about. We spoke about offense. Jesus said it would come. It's a part of life. Get Ready! You are going to be offended at some point in your life...

People will offend you. Churches will offend you. Family will offend you. Kids will offend you. You can't get away from it....But wait a minute....

Even though Jesus said that offense will come, we can make a decision to not live in offense, but live in the peace of God. Just because offense will come, doesn't mean we have to pitch a tent and live there!

Here is how you can get over offense:

1. Deal With It.

We learned that many people are offended simply because they feel rejected. Their idea was rejected. Their emotions were rejected. They didn't feel important. Whatever it is, you are never going to get better until you deal with it. Sweeping it under the rug just causes you to be lumpy...

2. Done With It.

As soon as you deal with it, you can leave it under the blood of Jesus Christ. Once you take the time to ask for forgiveness or deal with the problem, don't go back and dig it up again. It's to hard to do that. It's to painful to do that. Leave it there, under the blood and be done with it.

3. Delivered From it.

You can be delivered from offense. If you will deal with it, and be done with it, you can be delivered from it. God came to set us free, not so we will live in a spirit of offense the rest of our lives. Sometimes the only thing we can do is make a CHOICE to not be offended no matter what. You may have right to be offended, but do you have a right to stay that way? Why not be delivered!

Something To Think About,

Pastorj

Emotional Health - The Emotion of Fear

We learned yesterday, that fear is a spiritual force, just as faith is a spiritual force. Many people confuse these two, faith and fear as being emotions in and of themselves. In all actuality, these are spiritual forces that we choose to operate in, and they are what affect our emotions.

Let me explain. Fear really isn't an emotion, but rather being scared and afraid is. Just as faith is not an emotion, but boldness and confidence can be! As a result, we must learn how to operate by faith and not by fear. We can't operate in them both at the same time, we must make a decision to live in one and let the other one go.

Paul said, "God has not given us a SPIRIT of fear, but of power, love, and of a sound mind! Notice the bible doesn't say that God hasn't given us an emotion of fear, but rather a spirit of fear. It is time to live our lives by faith! It's time to live fearless! Here are a couple things to think about while in the process of eradicating fear from your life and living by faith:

1. F.E.A.R.

I am usually not one for acronyms...but I think this one is powerful. Fear is nothing more than:

False Evidence Appearing Real

If Satan can make you afraid, than He can beat you. Satan has no power on His own...only the power that you will give him. You give him power over you when you choose to believe his lies over what God has said. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Likewise, fear comes by hearing and hearing by the lies of the devil. Don't dwell on the lies of the devil, feast on God's Word and you will beat the devil every time.

2. Worry gives fear action.

Someone once asked me, "Pastor, how do you meditate on God's Word?" (Joshua 1) I responded with a question, "Do you know how to worry?" The person kinda looked at me weird and said, "Yea, I for sure know how to do that!" I told that person, "Then you know how to meditate! Just change what you are thinking about. Same action, but you will get different results!"

That's all it is. Worry is meditating on the lies of the devil. If you want to be free from fear, you have to choose to think different. This won't happen by divine osmosis. You have to on purpose think right thoughts. Don't give your fear action! Give your faith action and see how good your God is!

Something to think about,

pastorj

Emotional Health - The Emotion of Anger

Okay, so yesterday we dealt with every one's favorite emotion...(yea right). However, it was needful to talk about this emotion anyway. It's the emotion of anger. Like I said at the beginning of our discussion yesterday, there is a difference between Godly anger and "fleshly" anger.

We can see this contrast in the lives of Jesus and Moses. Moses was kept out of the promise land for striking the rock twice instead of once, because He was angry at the Israelites. This anger left him out of the promise land.

Jesus on the other hand, used Godly anger when He went into the temple to overturn the money-changers tables and proclaimed, "My House shall be called a House of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." One type of anger stopped the promises of God, the other type of anger brought them into the promises of God.

Here are a couple ways that we generally act out our anger:

1. We Blow Up

Have you ever met someone who got angry at someone and took it out on everybody. These are people who blow their stack at the first sign of trouble. They have a hard time controlling their emotional state from day to day.

2. We Blow Out

These are people who get angry and immediately accuse everyone else for their wrong doing, but cannot look at their own shortcomings. These are those who accuse others while feeling justified in their anger to stay the way that they are.

3. We Blow Away

This is probably the worst. These are the people who are passive aggressive and completely shut down when they are angry. At first, it looks like a noble thing to not act on their anger, however doing nothing is acting in and of itself. The problem with people who internalize their anger is, they generally never deal with the root cause of the problem, they simply stuff it in.

So what are we supposed to do? Because we all fall in one of these three categories. Well the answer is found in James 1. I encourage you to go and read it. The equation to be deal with anger is simply this:

BE QUICK TO HEAR + BE SLOW TO SPEAK = SLOW TO ANGER

If we can learn to listen first, speak second, then chances are we are going to give ourselves enough time to process the problem and deal with it effectively. Remember that equation and you are guaranteed to be one step closer to living a life of peace and blessing.

Something to think about,

Pastorj