How To Be Strong And Courageous When All Hell Is Breaking Loose In Your Life Part 5 - Rest
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Have you ever had one of THOSE days? Or one of THOSE years? Or maybe even one of THOSE decades?
What do you do in those moments?
Do you pluck up your courage to be strong when it feels like all hell is breaking loose?
Or, do you cave under pressure?
I know what it feels like to be waiting for a light at the end of the tunnel, only to discover it’s another train.
Yet, even though it’s downright challenging at times, we don’t have to let our adverse circumstances dictate our lives. And, we certainly don’t have to roll over and give up, even though that’s what I feel like doing so many times.
How?
Well, I’m so glad you asked. Throughout this series, we’ve talked about How To Be Strong And Courageous When All Hell Is Breaking Loose In Your Life. If you missed it, click here to head over to part 1.
We learned that we have two choices when troubling circumstances come our way.
Continue in Fear
Respond in Faith
Like me, I’m sure you want to respond in faith rather than continue in fear. That’s going to take growth on our part.
We also learned three keys to help us grow to be strong and courageous, responding in faith to our lousy circumstances:
Renew
Review
Rule
First, we Renew our minds to what God says about our situation.
Then we Review the words coming out of our mouths. Do our words line up with what we’re renewing our minds to?
Next, we Rule our emotions. We get to choose to be the boss of our feelings, supporting our Renewing and Reviewing.
Now, there’s one more thing we need to add to our tool belt so we can tie all these steps together.
Step Four: Rest
We need to learn to Rest on our Heavenly Father.
Resting is one of those things that can be difficult for us. We’re so used to doing, doing, doing that resting is foreign to many of us.
We’re also used to doing it ourselves. Most of us like control because we know it will get done and get done the way we want it done.
Even our faith walk can feel like a never-ending To-Do List–Read your Bible, give, volunteer, memorize Scripture, go to church every time the doors are open, share your faith, be kind, turn the other cheek, love everyone, and on and on it goes.
The resting I’m talking about is not stopping all your activity or going into vacation mode. However, a vacation sounds perfect about now.
The Rest I’m talking about is to rest in God.
Rest in the fact that God’s got this–He’s got you.
When we learn to lean on our Heavenly Father and His strength, we grow our ability to respond in faith, knowing Father’s got our back.
Learn to live in this place of Rest so we can be at ease and feel supported.
Our Heavenly Father is right there with us in the middle of our challenge, and He’s not going anywhere.
Hebrews 13:5 NASB
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He, Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever abandon you…”
At first glance, it seems weird that the writer of Hebrews says, “be free of the love of money,” and then, in the next breath, says, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever abandon you.”
How many of you have ever been (or currently are) stressed over finances?
Insert my hand raised here! Finances have been my biggest stress point through the years. Even when things are going well, I struggle to rest in this area.
When you’re in stress mode, whether it’s finances or another trying area, where’s your mind focused?
Does it dwell on the goodness of God?
Or does your mind stuck on replay like a song set on Repeat One, playing the same music over and over.
Rabbit Trail Alert
Years ago, I was playing the soundtrack to the old Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer by Rankin and Bass. Do you remember those old claymation Christmas cartoons from the 50s and 60s? Classics!
Well, I inadvertently hit repeat ONE instead of repeat ALL. Then left the house for a couple of hours. When I returned, my dad told me he’d heard “island of misfit toys” for the last two hours–over and over and over. Figures I would pick the worst song on the playlist to repeat…LOL.
This year, my husband and I one-upped this blooper for my dad’s Christmas present by giving him a CD with just the “Island of Misfit Toys” soundtrack burned repeatedly.
Okay…back on track.
It works the same way when we’re stressed out.
Our minds put our worst thoughts on Repeat One, and we roll them over and over and over again.
This thinking only buries us deeper into the negative thinking pit, causes us more stress and keeps us riding on the never-ending fear train. Then we feel like God abandoned us.
We can’t respond in faith with our destructive, negative thoughts on repeat, and we certainly can’t REST on our Heavenly Father believing He’s got this.
How do we actually Rest on our Heavenly Father instead of freaking out or trying to control it all?
Great question! Next post, I’m going to give you five principles that, if you embrace and believe, you’ll learn to REST knowing your Heavenly Father has your back.
Another post! I know, I know. But if I put the whole thing in this one it would be like. small book…LOL.
For now, I want you to identify what thoughts do you put on Repeat One?
Awareness of what’s holding you back is your first step so you can Rest in your Father’s arms.
Until Next Time, Live Fearlessly Free
Discussion
What soundtrack (aka negative thought) do you have on Repeat One?
Mine is,”When is the other shoe going to drop?”
Resources
Course:
A Joy-Filled Life Course – Learning to Live Beyond Your Circumstances by Heather Bunch - $27 special
This course will help you go from negative thinking to making positive thinking a habit bringing you more joy in the process.