OVERCOMING BLOCKS
"Thank you God, for the righteous cry out and the Lord (You) hear them; You deliver us from all our troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The righteous person, like myself, may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all"
(Ps 34:17-19)
THE CONCEPT OF BILATERAL IMPACT
What kind of thinker are you?
One point that needs mentioning before we go on to a new subject is the concept of bilateral impact. People with the tendency to think bilaterally rather than singularly tend to process information differently. Sometimes bilateral thinkers have a tougher time understanding the theoretical premise upon which FBCBT stands.
The theory presumes that, as you know, thoughts lead to feelings, which lead to actions or behaviors. We have spent quite a bit of time studying this pattern in our own lives and in the lives of others. This is a logical right brain approach to processing cognitions.
But some people tend to be more left-brain or have a combination of patterns. Their eye for creativity leads them to come to all sorts of conclusions not otherwise obvious or necessarily logical. The people tend to decide and act first and allow their feelings to follow after the activity is over. You may be wired similar to this. Too much thinking before hand leads to "analysis paralysis" where the information consumes clarity of thought and otherwise intuitive gut feelings.
No matter which way your brain tends to be wired don’t fret that something is wrong with you. God created each of us in a "fearful and wonderful" way. God is most concerned with our motives behind our actions and whether or not we are inspired to serve others and bring Him glory. There are many places in scriptures where He tells us to get our thoughts in order, to experience a more abundant life but there are other parts of the Bible where he tells us that "faith without WORKS" is dead. In other words, if we don’t take action we will not only fail to accomplish anything but we are really displeasing the Lord.
The safest way out of this puzzle is to prayerfully align our thoughts around adoration, thanksgiving, petition and inquiring, with the goal being – to honor the Lord and do all in His name. Rest in the Holy Spirit that God has put inside of you to whisper God’s Word and testify of His wishes.
Keep your thoughts aligned with scripture and your deeds will soon follow. If they don’t, no cause for alarm or quitting, pursue the positive activity you believe He would be calling you to pursue.
SOVEREIGN STUMBLING BLOCKS
We will now focus our attention on the relationship we have with God and try to unpack any misbeliefs, deep-seated emotions or unconscious behaviors that are not in harmony with fulfilling the potential He has for each of us.
Key Battle:
Many followers of Christ struggle with feelings that God has abandoned them, when they can’t physically sense His presence or audibly hear His voice. Another equally troubling conclusion many believers struggle with is the idea that God must be punishing them in order for all these negative thoughts/emotions and circumstances to appear.
First let’s clear the air with some spiritual facts:
1. It is normal to question God in the face of illness and affliction.
2. It is normal to feel negative emotions and think negative thoughts about God.
3. God created us to experience a wide range of emotions (from anger to elation). He is not surprised or alarmed…He accepts and loves us unconditionally.
4. God wants us to be true and honest with Him – not afraid of any potential negative reaction if we "come clean".
5. Often these things are not on the top of our mind or even things we are always aware of.
Life is a journey where these things tend to surface over time and the Bible says that it all works together for good for those who love God.
6. God created all feelings – even negative ones.
Ask Questions like:
God wants us to be honest with others, ourselves and Him. Some people grow up with the notion that they should never question God or feel angry with Him. Sometimes there is a fear that He isn’t listening or desires to punish us. It’s critical for you to realize that God feels sadness for all the pain, anguish and suffering we undergo. Like Christ did in the garden before going to the cross. It’s ok to share our innermost concerns and even cry, as He did. Honesty is the key that opens the door to healing and restoration. It facilitates and leads toward growth.
33. SCQ:
Relationship Questions:
Jot down your answers to these about your relationship with God
34. SCQ:
35. SCQ:
36. SCQ:
37. SCQ:
A note for you:
Remember that while the "why" questions are natural, God often doesn’t choose to answer us right away or in the manner we expect. There isn’t time to go into the theology of mystery or uncertainty as portrayed in both the New and Old Testament. Just be mindful that God is in control and wants us to depend on Him for wisdom, life/mind change and all we need. Sometimes it’s only in hindsight that we can get a glimpse of God’s purpose in promoting or permitting certain things to happen. As we learned previously, God’s thoughts and ways are much higher than our own.
He hasn’t left us alone in the process of transforming our life and overcoming illnesses like depression and anxiety. He just wants us to take one step at a time as though Jesus is just ahead of us on a path. He has a flashlight but it only illuminates a small circumference. So we need to stay close to him for the light to "see". Often in the Bible, God doesn’t tell us why some people get healed and some remain sick. If it was that important for us to know all the "whys", don’t you think He would reveal the answers we seek?
BIBLICAL EXAMPLES OF SUFFERING AND STRUGGLING:
Before He died Jesus prayed to God for "this cup to pass from me"…"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This leads us to the conclusion that he felt alone, afraid and abandoned. His negative thoughts and feelings made it hard to experience God’s peace at that time. But eventually, He intimately knew and experienced God’s wonderful plan.
Job experienced upheaval in nearly every aspect of his life. He had many intense negative emotions, doubts and questions about God’s love. We are blessed to have an account of Job’s ultimate inquiry and answer. He said that prior to his tough times, he only heard about God with his ears (Superficial knowledge). But at the end of the chapter he recounts: "Now I KNOW HIM". God used trials to create a more intimate and personal relationship. Therefore, Job counted his anguish to be worth it in the end.
Life is a "journey" and an "adventure" not a scavenger hunt to find "the hidden treasures".
Over time if you seek Him and search His ways, He will reward you with an "abundant life". This transformation occurs more readily when we start replacing any negative thoughts, feelings and/or mistakes with fresh truths we didn’t understand before. In fact much of the low self-esteem we see in life today can be traced to erroneous conclusions people have come to.
Often, once explored, we can detect a possible source of detrimental conditioning as we think about how we grew up and how influencers treated us. Many spiritual struggles result from unintentional errors in our thought life, which has left our emotions "stuck" in certain areas.
This may lead to avoiding something spiritual because of our past experience and resulting attitude formulation.
For now, let the questions subside and trust that your illness exists for a sovereign purpose, which likely involves developing greater compassion and empathy for others who are similarly afflicted. So too, we tend to let go of the grip we have on things, trying to control them in our own strengths. It’s only when we release things like this to the all knowing all powerful God that we can be truly free!
FORGIVENESS AND REPENTANCE
Sometimes our spiritual struggles can be tied to some inner resentment or unforgiveness we may not be aware of. Emotions like anger and bitterness are often not noticeable to us without deeper self-exploration. God is highly interested in these two aspects of human dynamics. They are each mentioned over 100 times in the scriptures. And scientifically, it has become well known that negative thoughts and emotions have a detrimental impact on our mental and physical health. This means that our body can’t fight off infections and viruses as they can when we are experiencing positive emotions.
The bible says:
"..I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers."
(3 John1:2)
So our prosperity in life is contingent upon the state of our mind, emotions and will. If we harbor negative attitudes toward God, others or ourselves our mind don’t prosper.
Repentance and forgiveness are the main tools the Bible gives us to remove negative feelings and conclusions about being wronged or getting even. The Bible sometimes refers to unforgiveness as sin that curbs God’s power to fly freely in us.
38. SCQ:
39. SCQ:
What the Bible says about forgiveness:
The Bible says that when we ask for forgiveness and desire to turn the other way (repent) God will remove that force, action thought/attitude as far as the East is from the West. In other words the mistake is gone from His view and memory forever.
God knows that sin messes up our lives and relationships with Him and others. To take away this horrible force inside of us, He sent Jesus to earth to die for our sins. There is no "fine tuning" or "tweaking" to disarm the power of sin. It has to be put to death. Rather than ask us to die for our wrong doings He allowed His sinless Son to be a sacrifice for us….atoning for all the mistakes and misbeliefs we have made and will make. All we need to do is accept God’s gift.
Expressing our desire to be clean and close to Him does this. And instead of trying to figure out how to make up for our weaknesses, all we need to do is express our sorrow to God (repentance) and ask for Him to take control of our lives. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t hold another accountable for some damages he may have caused but it does mean that an act of faith in God’s huge salvation plan is all that’s needed.
Confession:
When we confess our wrongdoings and express our intention to live rightly before God, He automatically forgives us and cancels any debt we may have accumulated as a result of our mistaken human ways. By embracing the sacrifice Jesus made for us, we are washed, clean and able to enter into the holy presence of God in total righteousness or right standing with Him. The act of confessing our sins is like emptying a wood pile in our hands in order for us to be able to reach the firewood God has for us (The means and method for heating, eating, lighting etc).
Because this is such a central treatise in the Christian theology we are encouraged to live our lives as forgiving and repenting individuals. Not only continually turning from our old ways to God’s ways but by extending forgiveness and repenting for any wrongdoing we have committed to someone else and even ourselves. When we forgive someone else that means we give up the right to hold his unfortunate actions against him. We give up our normal reactions like resentment, bitterness and anger. This is especially true when we don’t feel like apologizing and changing our thoughts and feelings. Don’t expect immediate feelings of elation to immediately take the place of long standing preconceptions. God will help us change our thoughts, feelings and behaviors over time; as long as we ask Him to lead the inner transformation and refrain from trying to shape-up by our own self –effort (Apart from the ultimate source and motive).
FORGIVENESS TRAVEL MAP (PART ONE)
Thoughtfully review the following questions when you are in relaxed and prayerful mood. Ask God to reveal His Will to you as you note thoughts and impressions. Be honest – no one needs to see this but you. You might just want to answer one question per day so as to not get overwhelmed. Use a journal if you need more paper.
List any thoughts, feelings or actions that you would like to be forgiven for:
1. Have these occurred because of your illness?
2. Do you think repentance and forgiveness would help you overcome your undesired thoughts and feelings?
3. Is there anybody else who you would like to forgive?
4. What would you like to ask God for in terms of forgiveness and repentance?
5. Who else would you like to forgive and seek repentance from?
FORGIVENESS TRAVEL MAP (PART TWO)
1. I need forgiveness for:
2. I need to forgive:
3. Write out a prayer to God.
SAMPLE: Lord I release others from any indebtedness, I feel justified to collect on. I give up accusing and blaming them. Please help me by forgiving them and dealing with bitterness. I give all my thoughts and feelings to you Lord. May my mind line up with yours? Lord as I imagine myself standing with you at the cross, I can visualize you saying that I am forgiven. Thank you for this tremendous act of grace.
FORGIVENESS IMAGERY EXERCISE
Picture yourself standing at the cross with Jesus hanging beside you. Give Him all your lists – as though you have written them down for Him to take – to be buried with him after He dies and before He is risen again to live an eternal life.
Sample prayer words (silent or out loud):
1. Father, please forgive me for anything I may have thought, said or done that needs to be removed. I release to you all my feelings and help me to treat others as being cleared from any wrongdoing. These are:
2. I choose to forgive myself for:
3. God, I thank you for your supernatural power to remove any stronghold negative thoughts, feelings, or behavior patterns that I may have indulged in recently or long ago. These include:
4. I release any resentment, bitterness, anger or accusations toward:
5. I ask you to help me forgive others just as you have forgiven me. These are: