"Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;"
Ephesians 6:14-18
How do we go about overcoming the feeling or emotion of defeat? Defeat is an area that is often connected to our health journey. The topics of health, weight loss, physical fitness, etc. can bring about these feelings of defeat from prior experiences in which we may have deemed ourselves unsuccessful due to a number on the scale or not accomplishing the original goal. We might question if the feeling of defeat is present now, or is the ability to conquer defeat even an option? Defeat is easily conquered ONLY through the power of the Lord and realizing that Christ has already won the victory on the cross is lifechanging. Moving foward, we can experience that victory through Him in every trial that we may be going through or will face in the future! As humans, feelings or emotions are experienced in all shapes and sizes. Tears fall, joy bursts through a smile or in laughter, butterflies are present in nerve-racking situations, but then anger or frustration can show through in times of disagreeance or discouragement. God created us to experience these emotions, and just like the feeling or emotion of defeat, the others also, are to point us to the Lord. So let's dig into some details around overcoming this sense of defeat which is often a result of temptations or emotions. Looking at it from the perspective of being completley dependent on our almighty God, instead of allowing these thoughts and emotions to dictate our feelings and actions!
This world relies, so much, on emotions and viewpoints being the same as the person next to you, the easy path being given, and the entire world agreeing on everything. Yet we are all encouraged to be unique at the same time. This is rather conflicting, until we rely on the Lord, in the area of health, or any area of life, there will not be any success or answers given. God created us with emotions BUT He did not create these emotions for us to let them dictate our actions! He blessed us with emotions to use every single one of them to point us back to Him! If we are happy we should praise the Lord, if we are sad, we should be running to Him, with frustration building, we should be begging for his peace and clarity of mind. In all seasons and emotions, we should be clinging to our Rock, our Resting Place. So, why is health so different? Is this an area of life that God cannot help you with? What about any negative thought or discouraging thought that creeps in, is God not capable of conquering that? What about while praying about this goal at hand and the enemy puts a thought in your head, are you going to let that send you into problem-solving on your own, or rest in the Lord's strength? Are you going to allow the sorrows of regret and sadness from your prior attempts at losing weight take control and push us away from the Lord and the goal that is so desperately desired because we've never seen the victory and think that it just must not be for us? God is the answer! He always is and always will be the answer, no matter the area of life. God commands us to be good stewards of the blessings He has given us in this earthly life, but oftentimes that is only applied to finances. With our bodies being a temple of the Holy Ghost, why would God not expect the same? And why would we not care for it the way the Israelites cared for the holy of holies in the temple or the ark of the covenant that both housed the Holy Spirit? As children of God, who have received His salvation, the Holy Spirit resides inside of us. Don't you think that God cares and will make a way for us to take care of it, just like He helped the children of Israel and provided for them in all of their needs? God will provide for us, just the same! He is all that we need and if we are questioning that in this area of health, I would challenge you to give Him your emotions, feelings, and thoughts! Talk to Him about each and every aspect of that and surrender your health journey to Him. By praying anytime a tempting thought or emotion creeps in we put on the armor of God to protect from the "wiles of the devil"! But we must not think this is a one time deal! Satan will continue to attack and this is a continuous process. As we use these emotions as triggers for prayer, we will eventually build the habit of going to the Lord anytime we feel an emotion instead of an alternative coping mecahnism that won't bring true victory but utter failure.
The aspect of renewing the mind can be done in multiple ways but is ultimately allowing the Lord to change the way we are thinking. And a method of doing that is by building a habit of prayer. Consistent prayer. In order to surrender discouraging thoughts and renew the mind, we must allow the Lord to transform our minds. One technique to build this habit is to write out scripture and place those verses in places that we might be in times of struggle. Others will simply see an encouraging bible verse written out, but we will see a reminder to pray while also being pointed to a helpful verse. Another option is to journal, or write a letter to God about these thoughts and feelings. God can change our minds on paper, and then we can visually read how He has shanged our thoughts into His thoughts throughout a time of journaling.
To sum things up, surrender is the key to overcoming defeat or any other emotion that might come our way! Until we completely give the battle to the Lord, can we ever expect victory? Just like any area of life, the act of surrender is giving the control over to the Lord, and it might happen time and time again as a result of our fleshly minds trying to do things on our own. But that is ok because we can rest in our heavenly Father alone, as He will always greet us with a warm embrace and carry us to true victory!
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Matthew 11:28
With love,
PURE GOLD
Comments