One thing that has become abundantly clear to me recently is how easy it is for us as humans to fall into a sort of spiral in life. So this has gotten me thinking. What am I allowing to put its grip on me? What is actually holding me? Am I operating out of God’s love and grace? Is it God that I feel and know is holding me? Or am I allowing something else to pull me to places that as a child of God I don’t belong?
What do I mean by that?
Well, for me, I know that where I want to be is safe and secure in the hands of Jesus. I want to know that regardless of my circumstances I am held. I am protected. I am cared for. I am not alone.
Where I want to be isn’t always where I am. Let me clarify: where I feel like I am. This is a dangerous and slippery slope. My feelings are frankly not reliable. They deceive. They can blind me.
Instead of leaning back into the arms of Jesus, I am incapable of finding rest. I begin to be consumed by a spiral of negative and often untrue thoughts. “I can’t do this.” “This is too hard.” “Where is God? Doesn’t He see or care?” The truth is when I allow myself to become consumed by “self” and what my own personal expectations for me are – it’s easy to go there.
This place of darkness isn’t stable. It isn’t accurate. It isn’t anything but a slippery slope intended to blind us about the truth that is found in our identity as children of the Most High God. Friend, as a child of the King, we are not rejected. We are accepted. We are not worthy. We are gifted with grace and mercy. It is not by our merit we were given this standing – it was provided by One who gave His life in exchange for ours. One who bore all of our sin and wore it as His own as He gave His life for ours.
We have got to break the cycle. We have got to put the breaks on the spiral. How?
First, we need to claim who we are in Christ. We need to have a continual reminder of who we are, and of what God promises us constantly before us. We need to find a verse or two – or find a song or two – that reinforce the promises of God. Whenever I begin to feel anxious, whenever I begin to feel overwhelmed, I intentionally bounce my thought back to the truth found in my verse or song.
Then second, I need to make sure that I am transparent with at least one other person. I need to find someone who will check in on me. Hold me accountable to following through on bouncing my thoughts. I need someone who is willing to stand in the gap and pray for me regularly. We were never intended to do life alone. We were made for relationship.
For me, I find that when things are the most challenging, those are the times where I absolutely need to step up my game. I don’t always want to. I want to sleep. I want to withdraw. I want to isolate myself. But isolation – even as an introvert – isn’t what I need. I need to get myself closer to my Heavenly Father. This is where I must be disciplined to tune out and stop wasting time with what is reinforcing the negative in my life: TV, social media, even secular music – which gets stuck in my head. I don’t want any of that. What I need is more God. Time with my Father. Truth. Love. Hope. Peace. I can get to a place where I am more connected with Him by reading His word, listening to sermons or podcasts, reading books about God, and through worship and praise. Worship Him by thanking God for what He has done, for who He is, and for what He plans to do.
The valley of darkness is not my final resting place. I am not intended to live there. God designed you and He designed me for so much more.
I tend to be a visual learner. My mind seems to latch on to visuals and retain that which I see over that which I just hear. The visual that comes to mind is like that of being continually overtaken – knocked down – by wave after wave in a vast ocean. When I am upright, I can jump the waves as they come. I can see them. I can rise over the swell. But if I lose my footing, I am rolling around in the powerful surf. I lose sight of how to regain my security. I get disoriented.
It’s hard to find my way out of the waves when I cannot see clearly how to do so. Friend, may the words of scripture be ones that feed your soul: “LORD, help!’ they cried in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves.” (Psalm 107:28-29)
Cry out to the One who adores your voice. He is mighty to save. He is your key to hope. He is your key to peace. He is your key to life.
Blessings!