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Thursday, February 17, 2022

Life Goals Based on Truth - The Pathway out of Anger, Anxiety and Depression – Purity 657

Life Goals Based on Truth - The Pathway out of Anger, Anxiety and Depression – Purity 657

Purity 657 02/17/2022     (mt4christ podcast blocked by podbean! mt4christ247 podcast blocked by podbean!!    Purity 657 Podcast via Google Drive, BOY!!

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a hiking trail that runs through a mostly barren forest at the Margaret Burke Wildlife Management Area off of Country Rd 254 in Altamont NY comes to us from yours truly as I captured this photo of “the trail that goes straight into nowhere” while I was passing through the area while at work on November 30th of 2021.  

Okay, the trail doesn’t lead to nowhere, but it was cold and my motivation to see where it went didn’t outweigh my desire to stay warm. Plus my time was limited and as inviting as the idea as a November hike may have been, I was afraid of “getting in trouble” and possibly being terminated for “being off the job” beyond my designated lunch hour.  

Well, it’s Thursday again, and as is my habit I have shared yet another photo of a pathway as a reminded to myself and others that I lead a Men’s Freedom in Christ Course meeting on Zoom tonight and as an encouragement to all my friends to take the path less traveled by pursuing the meaning and purpose that God has for your life that can be discovered on the path of Christian Discipleship.  

As mystical as that may sound and believe me if you follow it you could indeed see and experience some amazing things,  the path of Christian Discipleship is really just our continuous decision to “walk in the Spirit” by agreeing with the truth of God’s word and by trying to live our lives according to it.   

Although the decision to “walk in the Spirit” can eventually lead to the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, and self-control, to grow in our lives,  there can be times when the path of Christian Discipleship can look as barren and foreboding as today’s photo as we can feel all alone in our decision to follow the Lord’s will for our lives, and we can run into those periods where we seem to have left the good days behind us and have entered into trials that don’t seem to have an end in sight.   

Tonight our men’s group will be discussing the purpose for the negative emotions that we experience in life, what they indicate, and how we can learn from them and put them in their proper perspective.  

Negative emotions like anger, anxiety, and depression happen and each one of them  can tell us something about what we are experiencing and possibly something about what we believe.  

These negative emotions usually occur when something is interfering with our “life goals”. No matter who you are, as you have gone through life you have developed beliefs about what will make you happy, fulfilled, secure, or significant.  They might not be like “career goals” with a plan of action necessarily as much as simple desires like having a happy family, having financial security, or not experiencing pain.   

The problem with life goals like that is that people and circumstances can prevent them from being fulfilled or can take them away from us.  

Anger is said to come from someone or something “blocking our goal.”  For example, the goal of a happy family can be blocked by literally everyone in the family, including ourselves.  If there is one not so happy camper in your home you can know how they can negatively affect the harmony of your domicile.   

Anxiety is said to result when a life goal is uncertain.  Uncertain life goals lie beyond our control. So when we feel anxiety,  we are choosing to worry about what will or will not happen.  The problem is that we can’t “make things happen” sometimes and we lose our peace by investing so much of our hopes for happiness in them.      

Depression results when we lose hope that our life goals will ever be realized.   

So do we eliminate people from our lives, or do we just impose our wills over all the circumstances in our life to “control” things so our life goals will be accomplished?    

These measures could work for a time but generally controlling efforts result in more anger, anxiety, and depression!   

So instead of feeding the cycles of negative emotions, we should endeavor to develop life goals that are based on truth and that can not be blocked by other people or circumstances.  

For the Christian, we should endeavor to be the people that God made us to be by adopting His will and ways for our lives. 

The path of Christian Discipleship is the decision to do just that.  Walking in the Spirit is to make the decision that regardless of the negative responses we may receive from other people, or from the changing circumstances in the world, we will choose to believe what the Lord says about us and seek to do His will knowing that in Christ we are accepted, secure, and significant already.  

When we realize that we are loved and accepted by God, no matter what, we can have peace.   He will never leave us or forsake us, never. 

When we realize that nothing can separate us from His love, even death, we can know peace. No matter what will befall us or what we will suffer, God will be with us, always.  

When we realize that the Creator of all things, has personally chose us to know Him and to give us a place in His kingdom, we can see that we are significant.  

The thing about our lives is that no matter how we choose to live, they always move forward in time.  No matter what we do or how we choose to live, we will be moved through time and space into eternity.  

If we choose to have life goals that are based on temporary happiness or that are subject to the whims of other people or circumstances, we will walk though life with anger, anxiety, fear, and depression.  

If instead we choose to make peace with God by making Jesus our Lord and Savior and choose life goals that are based on His eternal truths, we may encounter periods of anger, anxiety, fear, or depression but we can remind ourselves of who we are in the perspective of God’s kingdom and walk through them and past them with the knowledge that in Christ we are always accepted, significant, and secure.  

So, step out in faith and follow the Lord into the purpose and meaning He has for your life.  If you keep walking and talking with God, you will realize that you are not alone and that no matter how barren the pathway before you may appear, you can be assured that as long as you walk with Him it will lead to a good place.     


Today’s Bible verse come to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 119:105 (NLT2)
105  Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.

Today’s Bible verse speaks of the purpose of the word of God: as a guide for our lives and to shine a light of truth and hope over our journey.   

The word of God is filled with wisdom. The challenge is to read it, understand it, and to apply it to our lives.  

Some of what the Bible teaches is historical, but these narratives can be seen as illustrations of what is good and evil and about how God would have us choose to live.  

The Epistles in the New Testament in particular are a great source of wisdom to guide and light our path of Christian Discipleship because they tend to provide us with some foundational teachings about who we are as Christians, the truth about what it means to be in Christ, and some practical advice on how we should live. 

Foundationally we are taught that in Christ we have eternal life as adopted children of God.  We learn that we are loved and that we have the ultimate protection from the Lord in that we are already citizens in heaven.  

Experientially, we are told that we are to pray without ceasing, rejoice continually, and be thankful in all things.  The only reason we could possibly do that is by understanding the foundational truths of who we are in Christ.  

So let the “light” of the truth of God’s word and who you are in Christ, illuminate your path.  And let the practical wisdom of God’s word be your “guidance” that will help you to “walk in the Spirit” and that will cause the fruit of the Spirit to grow in your life.   

The word of God gives us truth, guidance, and hope.  So pick up the word to be filled with its wisdom and allow it to guide the journey of your life in Christ.

 

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 

Today we continue sharing from June Hunt’s Codependency: Balancing an Unbalanced Relationship.

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s  books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $5.00.

B. What Is Codependency?

Though the word codependency may be fairly new, the concept is age-old. We can certainly see how supposedly strong Samson violates his values by giving in to seemingly dependent Delilah. But this compromise of codependency was not his first. During the time of his seven-day wedding feast, Samson gave a riddle as a wager to the Philistines (the godless people of his new wife). His wife cried the entire time, "You hate me! You don't really love me.... You haven't told me the answer" (Judges 14:16). On the final day of the feast, Samson was worn down and told his wife.... Then, in turn, she told the Philistines. As a result, violence and bloodshed ran rampant... only because strong Samson didn't act with the strength of his convictions. Instead, he became weak-willed, following the persistent pleading of his weak wife. Samson needed to...

"Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." (Ephesians 6:10)

  • Today, a codependent is anyone who is dependent on another person to the point of being controlled or manipulated by that person.
  • The word codependent was first used in the 1970s to describe a family member living with an alcoholic. The prefix co- means "with" or "one associated with the action of another."
  • Codependency became the word that describes the dysfunctional behavior of family members seeking to adapt to the destructive behavior of the alcoholic.
  • Codependency is a relationship addiction. Just as the alcoholic is dependent on alcohol, the codependent is dependent on being needed by the alcoholic... or on being needed by someone who is dependent.
  • The "enabler" is a codependent person who enables the alcoholic (or other dependent person) to continue with the addiction without drawing and maintaining boundaries. Codependency involves being too dependent on someone or something that cannot meet your needs. Codependency can be compared to the sin of depending on false gods that are powerless to help or depending on a broken water well that won't hold water. It simply won't work!

"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." (Jeremiah 2:13)

Question: "How can I know whether I'm an enabler?"

Answer: You are an enabler if you perpetuate another's destructive behavior by protecting that person from painful consequences that could actually serve as a motivation for change.

  • —The enabling parent allows the teenager's drug habit to continue with no repercussions, even to the detriment of other family members.
  • —The enabling wife calls her husband's boss to say that he has the flu when in fact he has a hangover.

Ask yourself, How many lies have I told to protect the reputation of the one with the destructive habit? The Bible has strong words to say about those who protect the guilty....

"Whoever says to the guilty, 'You are innocent'peoples will curse him and nations denounce him." (Proverbs 24:24)

Biblical Counseling Keys: Codependency: Balancing an Unbalanced Relationship.

 ---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship


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