When emotional pain is unrelenting, what do you do?
Have you been there? I have. The emotional pain would overwhelm and feel hopelessly inescapable. At times, it seemed to fill every cell in my body, every breath I took. This was the very definition of torment.
In that state, terrible thoughts would come in. Ways that I could stop the pain. Permanently. These were suicidal thoughts put into my mind by the enemy.
Most of the time, I was able to withstand those thoughts, because I truly wanted to live and I knew taking my own life was the wrong choice. A few times, with the crushing weight of additional trauma, I didn’t hold up well and attempted to end the pain myself. I thank the Lord I was unsuccessful each of those times. I believe God miraculously kept me here in one incident especially. The overdose I had taken, with zero intervention afterwards, should have taken my life. Yet it didn’t, and I woke up the next morning as if I had taken nothing at all. Amazingly, my physical body was completely unharmed.
Coping at a cost
The way I eventually learned to cope was to keep my environment as low stress as possible. I did this for years with some success, but it was extreme.
Maintaining a tight control over everything around me kept the bad things out. I hid in my house, slept to escape my thoughts, and kept myself separated from other people.
Life was easier and felt safer this way. But this meant I also missed out on life. And relationships. Isolation was a false promise of safety, and it only added to the anxiety and depression. We are meant to be in relationship with others and with God. To live a life without either is an empty one, and it leaves a person open to influence from the enemy.
How does the enemy influence us?
In our thoughts!
We are vulnerable if we don’t have God’s protection. Without the renewed spiritual connection with God that comes from declaring Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, we have nothing with which to shield our minds. We operate from a very carnal or selfish mindset, which means we make decisions by what feels good to us. The enemy can speak into our minds to push us to further satisfy our selfish desires. He can also torment us by speaking negative thoughts into our minds, to which we may react wrongly or selfishly.
There can be thousands of these thoughts per day, playing on a never-ending loop. I had thoughts like those, and they were a huge source of the pain I was experiencing. It was all happening in my mind! None of my own solutions worked. I was only falling right in with the plans of the enemy, which was for my destruction.
He comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10) I was falling in with his plan for me and not God’s plan.
How do we turn negativity around?
By using God’s methods. He has provided ALL for us, including protection from negative thoughts from the enemy.
Our protection comes from the helmet of salvation spoken of in Ephesians 6:17. Once we accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, we are brand new creations with a new mind focused on things of the Spirit and the wisdom of God. This is the mind of Christ! We must grow in it by renewing our minds with the Word of God, meaning fill our minds with God’s Word so that our thinking changes to be like His. The mind of Christ is the helmet of salvation that protects us from thoughts put there by the enemy.
What if I’m already saved and the enemy is still affecting my thoughts?
This is oppression. And yes, Christians can still be oppressed. This is where renewal of the mind comes in, and sometimes deliverance. Deliverance is simply removal of the enemy from a person, enforcing the work of Christ. And sometimes, we have to take authority and kick the devil out! Often, renewal of the mind itself will result in deliverance. We do have a choice to operate out of this new mind we have been given or the old, carnal one which is in line with the enemy. But when a person no longer agrees with the enemy, he no longer has a foothold or opportunity to afflict or oppress. (Ephesians 4:27)
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
James 4:7, KJV
After my salvation, I still suffered under enemy oppression. There was a process where I had to learn the battle was in my mind and that I had the authority to kick the enemy out of there! Once I did that, the change was remarkable and instantaneous! The enemy tried to afflict me, but had to go when I did not accept it. I chose to believe God instead.
Since that initial learning process, there have been additional attacks and even oppression at times. But each time, the battle has been won by applying the truth of God’s Word. By changing the way I think. I am still a work in progress, but God has equipped me and has me in His hand!
We LIVE by God’s Word
Renew your mind with the Word of God. Read it. Speak it. Meditate on it. Let the Word of God change you from the inside out. When your mind is filled with God’s Word, there is no room for the negative, and anything not of God that tries to come in will be torn down.
As written in Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (NIV)
And as we are encouraged in Philippians 4:8, think on things which are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. We find all of these things in the Word of God.
The thoughts we entertain the most will dominate our minds, and from there, our memories.
Memory can be so flooded with negative thoughts, for example, that positive experiences get crowded out and can be more difficult to recall later. We truly are responsible because if we are not stopping them, we ARE entertaining them. We do have a choice of what we allow to be in our thoughts. This is why the Word of God tells us, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:5, NIV)
Taking thoughts captive is an active choice. An action step. We must choose to do this. And when we do, God helps us to get the job done. His Holy Spirit present in us supplies the power that makes it possible. “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” (Luke 1:37, KJV)
Give yourself some grace…God already has
Don’t be hard on yourself if it takes a little time. You are a work in progress! We learn as we go through this process of transformation, as we renew our minds daily. God has already given you grace as you learn and grow. But the enemy would like to treat you to condemnation and shame…don’t allow it! If he can get you to agree, then you will do his work for him. God wants you to be free with your life overflowing with all spiritual blessings. He has made a way for you to be both blessed and free through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus, your Lord and Savior
Have you made Jesus the Lord of your life?
If the answer is no but you would like to, the following prayer spoken from your heart will guide you. Perhaps you need to rededicate yourself to Him. Wherever your current walk, God bless you on your journey to freedom with Jesus Christ!
Lord Jesus, I choose to follow You as my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart. Forgive me of my sin. Set me free. Jesus, I believe that You died for me, and that You are risen from the dead and coming back for me. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. Help me to live my life for You. Thank You for forgiving me and saving me. Amen!