Catching your feelings

Living everyday being led by feelings can not only drive you crazy because feelings continuously change, but they can lead to you making hasty decisions. The thing about feelings is that they are based on whatever is happening around you and not in you.  So gaining control over what you allow yourself to feel is very important. This starts with controlling what you think about because what we think about determines how you feel. 

I am guilty of letting my emotions get the better of me, to a point where staying in bed seemed like the best thing for me to do… a whole day wasted. Sadly I am one of those people who cannot function when things are not hanky-dorey... My daddy and I are working on it, trust me I do not have it all together. I was convinced that I was falling back into a state of depression. Having been diagnosed with medical depression before, I was sure I was falling back into the same dark hole.  According to me all the “symptoms” were there, my mind being clogged up with nonsense, insecurities, comparing myself to others, loneliness, emptiness, basically feeling completely worthless. Normally I would call up my tattoo artist and get inked, but this time something within me told me that no medication ( so there goes the idea of calling my shrink up for a session and hopefully she would throw in a prescription of the good stuff), no needle work ( mind you don't get it twisted, I love my art work,  I rate it spoke for me when I couldn’t, notice I say “spoke” now I have found my voice through Jesus, so any ink I get now will just be an extension of what I have to say, not a platform for me to say something) would “fix” me this time… Those were temporary solutions. I needed a permanent solution, which I knew wouldn't be an instant thing, it would require some effort from me this time.

As you read this please do not think for a moment that I disregard depression, because trust me I know what it leads to when not treated correctly. The type of depression I am talking about is the one I was “going through”. Like I mentioned before as a person who went through professionally diagnosed depression I was sure I was going through it again, then I opened my bible to Luke 24:13-35. By the end of reading this chapter I realised depressed is not what I was, what I really was is SPIRITUALLY SICK- my spirit was depressed. I say sick because even after I had fully committed my life to God, I did not recognise who He is to me, what I recognised were the crippling thoughts that I had allowed to invade my head thus making me feel  debilitated. My spirit was not healthy therefore there was no way it would have produced anything healthy because I was using the wrong medication to heal it. I was like the disciples who were so caught up in their sadness on their way to Emmaus after the crucifixion that they did not realise that the one they had been talking to on the road was in fact Jesus Christ.  They were so glued to their heartbreak that they had forgotten what He had said to them prior to His death. It was only after Jesus broke the bread at the table where they were all seated, did they realise who had been in their presence all along. The breaking of bread is done in remembrance of what Jesus did for us on the cross, His body was broken so that we can be whole-whole from heartache, whole from sickness, whole from anything that hinders us from concentrating on our relationship with God, ( 1 Cor 11:24). It all leads back to the cross. As Gods beloved children, we need to fully understand what that means. For Jesus to enter into His glory He had to suffer on our behalf, (Luke 24:26). So does it not make sense that for us to get to where we need or want to be we have to endure the good with the bad? Does it not mean that we need to see all that we go through as a gift from Him as He is preparing us for our good and His glory?

We need to recognise God, (like fully recognise Him)and who He is to us and we need understand His role in our lives. For us to move into greatness, we need to stop allowing negative thoughts brew in our minds as they play on our feelings and we end up losing focus of the main thing. The sadness, the insecurity, the anger, the uncertainty, the heartbreak, the rejection etc, are the feelings we need catch, gain control of and chuck before they begin to manifest in our lives. I urge you to be relentless in finding Him, it starts with a change in attitude, recognise the difference between acting on feelings and acting on wisdom…  One of them is more informed than the other.  Try something new with me, instead of seeing a bad situation as simply that, a bad situation, begin to see the bigger picture, God would not bring you to a place just to abandon you. So instead of dwelling on the negativity of the situation, praise Him even when it hurts like hell, because feelings are temporary but victory is made eternal when you see God in everything. Honey that break up is setting you up for your Boaz or your Proverbs 31 Woman, that declined application is showing you God has bigger plans for you, those who walked away from  you is an indication that where God is taking you, you couldn't take them with their season in your life is over.  Trust that He is fully involved in your life as you begin to recognise Him as He has recognised you.

His love was spilled on the cross for you, that's how deep His love is for you. *POW WOW