As we continue talking about our mental and emotional health, I hope you see that its source is our spirit. Since our spirit influences our thoughts which affect our emotions, we have to be aware of the foundation for issues in our soul health if we truly want healing. So next time you start to feel frustrated, confused, angry, bitter, depressed, anxious and so on and so on, stop and check your heart. Ask yourself, “Where is my focus? Am I being consumed with earthly things? Am I obsessing over a perceived offense? Am I judging according to my own sense of right and wrong? Have I turned away from God, once again?” The truth is we are going to turn away because we are humans who are still learning to be all God designed us to be. Have mercy on yourself and return to God.
The Bible talks about turning and returning to God all over the place because God knows we are children who will stray. We are like the young toddler where his Mom is trying to feed him, but he declares, “I do it! I do it!” We think we can live this life on our own but we were never meant to! We were always meant to live in union with God, receiving all that is good and perfect from Him, enjoying it, then sharing it with those around us. But when we stray, we experience those negative emotions, the “death symptoms” I call them, and life gets harder and darker and miserable all over again.
Check our thoughts and our heart. Those death symptoms are signals that we have turned away from God back to Self. The more sensitive we get at sensing these emotions, the quicker we can return to God and the Abundant Life, filled to the overflow with peace and joy, that we truly desire.
<>< Peace, Diane
