Have
you had trouble experiencing joy? Perhaps the reason is that your concerns are
weighing you down.
I was feeling a little sluggish
today and just not able to experience joy. It felt as if something was pressing
on me or weighing me down. In my time with God this morning, He revealed to me
that I was concerned over many matters and that was causing me to feel the way
I was.
→How do
you know you are overly concerned about a situation?
You repeatedly think about or talk about the
situation that concerns you. God had showed me that I have been daily thinking about the same concerns. It is not all bad to have
concerns but when they become repetitious
in manner than we can lose our joy and our peace.
When we hold onto the
same concerns after we have prayed about them and refuse to surrender the
outcomes to God, a heaviness can come upon us. We are not built to carry our concerns. If we carry our
concerns daily we cannot experience enjoyment of life.
As women it can be especially challenging not to think
about our concerns. A woman’s brain is compared to spaghetti, meaning that experiences
and thoughts all run-together. The problem is when you can’t turn the switch
off in your brain for the situations you are concerned about.
→How
can you walk in freedom from your concerns?
1. Write out what you are concerned about, be
aware of those concerns you repeatedly think about (those are the ones that
cause heaviness and robs you of joy and peace).
2. Look over your list of concerns and ask
yourself the following questions over each one: Have you prayed about that
concern? Are you trusting God with the outcome of your prayers? Which concerns
do you repeatedly think about? Get to the “root” of why you repeatedly think
about those concerns. Are your concerns rooted in fear?
3. Are you trying to figure out the outcomes of
your concerns?
4. Become aware of the concerns you are repeatedly
thinking about. Submit the concern immediately to Christ and move on. When the Holy Spirit wants you
to act, then He will give you the grace, strength and peace to do so. Remind
yourself that you have prayed about those concerns, and God has heard you and
He will answer you. If you are repeatedly thinking about the same concerns most
likely fear is involved and you are in bondage to whatever is controlling your
thoughts. Fear does not come from God, so it must be broken by the name of
Jesus. Fear can come in many forms, fear of the unknown, fear of man, fear of
disappointing others, fear of being hurt.
5. Obsessive thoughts about concerns can be broken
by discipling your mind, or retraining your thoughts. When a reoccurring obsessive thought comes to
your mind, don’t entertain, dwell, or
analyze that thought. Stop thinking
about that thought by replacing the thought with a scripture and/or a
faith-filled response. You may need to do this often before the obsessive
thought is broken. Think on those things that are lovely, a good report and
things that are praiseworthy.
►Disciplining your thoughts takes time and effort,
but it can be done. You can have freedom from what concerns you. For additional
practical help, check out my latest book, “Disciplining
your mind 30 days to a better you!”. You can find my book on Amazon and on
this blog.
►If you are a subscriber to my blog, or a book reviewer
and would like to do a book review for Amazon and Good reads for my book, send
me a message and I will send you a physical, signed copy of my book for you to
review.
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