I'm Fineنموونە

Let me start out today by saying something that will probably bother you when it’s said. When it comes to managing our negative emotions, we need to practice mind control. Yeah, that’s a bit of a head scratcher, but let’s look again at 2 Corinthians 10:5: “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

Remember here that Paul is an expert at having to deal with terrible circumstances - he even details some of his adversities in the next chapter:

“Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” (2 Corinthians 11:24-28)

Through these challenges, Paul is probably experiencing quite the spectrum of negative emotions: depression, fear, frustration, pain, betrayal, and the last one he lists at the end - anxiety. And that’s just to name a few. But what is so abundantly clear through the life and trials of the apostle Paul is that he always chooses to have a mental state that is dependent on the Lord rather than his circumstances; he ruthlessly fights against passivity and helplessness.

And he practices mind control. Any negative thought that sneaks into his mind, argument that is detrimental to his faith in God, opinion he has on the situation at hand, he takes captive and makes it obedient to Christ. Imagine doing that yourself; mentally wrestling each thought down in your mind and submitting it to the authority of the reigning Christ. And what does Christ have to say about you? That you’re a Child of God. That you’re bought with his blood. That you’re no longer a slave to sin. That his grace is enough. And so, so, so much more.

So as negative emotions come your way, do as Paul does. Make it obedient to Christ. Don’t be helpless and passive to the whims of life and the experience of the human condition. Again, life is hard and you can’t totally control what happens to you. But you can control how you react to it. So choose to have a state that is dependent on the Lord over circumstances.

And what Paul says a couple verses later will floor you: “Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that” (v. 7). SO, look at what is before you (addiction, divorce, conflict, depression, unrelenting anxiety, financial problems) and claim your identity as a child of God over it. It does not own you, Christ owns you. And there is freedom and joy in that truth.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Question to consider: Are you passive and helpless in the negative emotions/thoughts that make their way into your head? Based on your reading today, what can you do to reclaim your headspace and become more aggressive in battling those thoughts?