Counteract Your Troubling Emotions

There is a way to joy and peace.
Counteract Your Troubling Emotions

Dave Boon and his family were on their way to a youth group ski trip when an avalanche swept his car over a guardrail. The blast of mountain snow sent the car down the mountain slope, where it was stopped by a tree.

Fortunately, they survived, but Boon said, "The signs say, 'Avalanche Area, No Stopping.' We've driven by there hundreds of times …. But in our wildest dreams, we never imagined getting hit in a car by one."[1]

That's the way it is with our emotions. We can be going along normally when all of a sudden we feel like we are caught in a runaway avalanche—tossed from side to side, unable to get a grip as we ride at the mercy of the forces that surround us. Worst of all, we can't experience the joy and peace God offers us. It seems unattainable, unreachable. How can we get control of our lives again?

We need practical help, something to hold onto and to bring us back into the joy and peace God wants us to have. The next time you feel that you are in a runaway avalanche, look at the following list to identify and counteract the root of your discouragement, fear, anger, or stress.

1. I have forgotten who God is. God is sufficient for everything I am facing. He is the answer to all my fears.

Pray: Lord, I realize if you do not take away my problem it's because you have a higher purpose for me. You delight in my well-being. You are a great and loving God. Lord, I surrender _____________ to you now.

2. I'm not living in the here and now, but instead am focused on the future or the past. Often, we focus on the future or past because there is something we need to do today that we don't want to do. It can be as small as taking a nap, taking a walk, or having a difficult conversation with someone. What do I need to do today? If it seems overwhelming, what is one small step I can take?

Pray: Lord, you are the only one who knows the future, and I cannot change the past. I can only ask for, receive, and count on your forgiveness, and trust you to "repay [me] for the years the locusts have eaten" (Joel 2:25).

3. I believe lies. I need to read the Bible so that I can distinguish between what is true and what is a lie.

Pray: Lord, remind me of your truth, which is the only thing that can give me your peace and joy.

4. I have unrealistic expectations of my circumstances, myself, or others, or I'm too focused on what others expect from me.

Pray: Help me to remember Lord, that my thoughts have two sources. One at times feels true, but it's a lie—accusing or condemning, full of "shoulds" and "oughts" that produce fear or guilt. But your truth is sweet, gentle, and freeing, though at times hard to grasp and believe. Your truth is spoken in your great love.

5. I am ignoring feelings of worry, anxiety, discouragement, offense, injury, rejection, disappointment, fear, anger, or self-pity instead of dealing with them.

Pray: Thank you, Lord, for your gift of emotions, even the negative ones. Thank you for the window my emotions provide into my thoughts and beliefs. Thank you that you "pay attention to my groaning" (Ps. 5:1, NLT). Please help me to be as open and honest with you as David was in his psalms. Surely "you will hear [my] cries and comfort" me (Ps. 10:17, NLT).

6. I am making comparisons with others. Instead, what can I choose to be thankful for or praise God for?

Pray: Thank you, Lord, for your great and amazing mercy towards me. Thank you that whenever I doubt your love for me, I only need remember the Cross. Thank you for loving me and giving your life for me.

7. I am focusing on what I do not have, instead of what I have, looking at my losses instead of my gains. Make a list of things you are thankful for whenever you start looking negatively at what you don't have.

Pray: Thank you, Lord, for the love, acceptance, security, value, significance, purpose and so much more I have in you. Thank you for the gift, privilege, and power of your Word and Holy Spirit. In addition to all these, I thank you for …

8. I am simply overtired. God is the only one who needs no rest, and yet when he created the world he rested on the seventh day, setting an example for us. Make a decision to stop, take a nap, go to bed early, take a walk or bike ride, read a book, or just listen to worship or praise music, surrendering your concerns to the Lord until your energy returns.

Pray: Thank you, Lord, for continually calling me to come to you, to rest in you. Thank you that you do not call me to live with the tasks and burdens of tomorrow, but only for today. Thank you that I have only one true responsibility, and that is to be responsive to you. Thank you for your great care for me. Please help me to roll all my cares onto you now.

9. I am looking only at myself instead of looking outward. Put yourself in another person's shoes. How does the Lord see that person or situation? Who can you do a kind deed for, even if it's just listening to them?

Pray: I praise you, Lord, for being a God who is all about loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. Please fill me with your love for myself and others. Please strengthen me to be your voice, your face, your listening ear, and your helping hands to others.

10. I am looking at things from my own point of view rather than God's. Jesus had to say to his disciple Peter, whom he loved, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns" (Matt. 16:23).

Pray: Help me remember that I'm the one who chooses whose voice to listen to. Strengthen me to listen to you and you alone, Lord. You want true freedom and wholeness for me. Thank you that as I surrender to you, I am free and whole.

Bonnie Jones is a freelance writer who lives in DeKalb, Illinois.

1. Patrick O'Driscoll, "Avalanche Sends Travelers Tumbling," USA Today (1-8-07), p. 3A.

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