Monday, May 12, 2014
How not to be a cat's lunch
Colossians 2:17 says that reality is found in Christ.
I recently found myself dealing with a confusing needless kind of stress that just pounced on me like a wild hungry cat.
I know that fear and anxiety are not from God and so using that knowledge I tried to convince myself to stop worrying but as hard as I tried to convince myself to just stop I could not do it, I could not just switch the feelings off by forcing myself to stop.
I was missing something important.
Then on Sunday morning I remembered, while studying the 2nd chapter of Colossians with my bible study group earlier that week a phrase stood-up and said 'Hello Cindy' - "But the reality, however, is found in Christ." At the time I used the little treasure of a phrase to encourage women in my study to not let the stress of their life overwhelm them because always no matter how it seems our reality is in Christ, in all things our reality is found in him and who he says we are. We have to centre on him and keep that perspective to overcome that which would like to destroy us. At the time it was powerful and useful thinking to me.
But now I was faced with a choice, was all that I said to others real for me too? Did I just say stuff to other people and then not apply it to my life?
I walked with God and wrestled in prayer over it. I discussed my reality with him and he reminded me of the real things of my life, of answered prayers and how real he is, of true peace that comes from him, and that he really will never let me just wander off when I am abiding in him. So I abided and I was delivered from the overwhelming feelings. Though the threat of stress lingered it was no longer my reality.
"I will not be a hungry cat's lunch!"
Forcing myself to think different was not working because I needed to re-centre my thinking on my reality, Jesus, not on stopping the stress.
Stress and pressures will be there but we can regain peace when we centre ourselves on Jesus our reality. I now have experience with this.
Don't be a cat's lunch.
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2 comments:
Great post Cindy. We are going through John Ortberg's book The Me I Want to Be with the young adults and last study was on controlling our mind ... not by stopping bad thought as you tried, but doesn't work ... rather think great thoughts, thoughts about Jesus etc.
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Romans 12;2 NLT
Sounds like a good book to study. Thanks for the comment.
The whole thing about just trying to stop thoughts is that it's like trying to stop water from going through a sieve with your hand, there will always be another hole for the water to get through. It's not going to work.
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