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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