WHEN I WAS A CHILD, I TALKED LIKE A CHILD, I THOUGHT LIKE A CHILD, I REASONED LIKE A CHILD. WHEN I BECAME A MAN, I PUT CHILDISH WAYS BEHIND ME
(1 Corinthians 13:11).
You did not know it at the time, but as a child, you founded a permanent emotional position, grounded on your childhood interpretations. You developed fear, because you believed God had abandoned you. You suffered shame, because you believed that you were tainted. You took on guilt, because you believed that you were responsible. Since then, these childhood beliefs have been influencing your whole world: how you think, how you talk, and how you reason.
As a child, you did not know that many of your childhood conclusions were false, even though your experiences were real. The father-of-lies used these to take you captive and bring you under his control, while leading you further and further away from the Truth.
As an adult, you did not know that the permanent emotional position you founded as a child was going to make you feel as if you have two very different personalities—one child-like…the other, adult-like. You now seesaw between these two states in a matter of minutes, living in a normal logical adult mind, one moment, then thrown into an irrational child mind, the next moment. Because of your false childhood conclusions, you are often involuntarily displaced into the past to relive the fear over and over again, to suffer the shame over and over again, and to experience the guilt over and over again.
I SOUGHT THE LORD, AND HE ANSWERED ME; HE DELIVERED ME FROM ALL MY FEARS
(Psalm 34:4).
How often do you turn into a child, reliving your fear, guilt, and shame over and over again, when you least expect it? Did you know that God has a solution for this behavior?
The Lord Jesus knows how you felt as a child, because He was there. He wants to deliver you from all your fears, but you need to seek Him. When you feel like a child, you need to find the belief from the father-of-lies that is causing you to think, talk, and reason like a child. Then, after you have submitted these beliefs to the Lord Jesus, He will exchange your false childhood conclusions for the Truth.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, remind me, daily, that it is not what happened to me as a child that crushed my spirit, but what I came to believe about myself as a result of my experiences. Call me, moment-by-moment, whenever I am fearful, ashamed, and guilt-ridden, to submit my childhood conclusions to You, my Lord. Deliver me from these false interpretations, so I may become a stable adult, even today.
Maintain an Awareness
We run…and run…and run, but we never run to God.