THEN JESUS ANSWERED, ‘WILL YOU REALLY LAY DOWN YOUR LIFE FOR ME’
(John 13:38).
How do you deal with the emotional pain in your heart—the pain that sits on top of the negative, destructive beliefs that you are not good enough…that you are doomed and damned…that you are a disappointment?
Do you deal with your pain through the defense mechanism of over-indulgence—turning to excessiveness of some sorts, rather than Jesus, to ease your pain? Know for certain that if you sow overdo and overuse, you will reap DESTRUCTION, but if you sow to surrender your pain to the Spirit, from the Spirit you will reap LIFE and PEACE.
THE ONE WHO SOWS TO PLEASE HIS SINFUL NATURE, FROM THAT NATURE WILL REAP DESTRUCTION; THE ONE WHO SOWS TO PLEASE THE SPIRIT, FROM THE SPIRIT WILL REAP ETERNAL LIFE
(Galatians 6:8).
I bless you to give up seeking relief from your pain through over-indulgence of any kind. Instead, allow yourself to pause before you indulge, and EMBRACE the pain that instigates you to overdo. Identify the hurt. Find the beliefs the father-of-lies has planted in your mind: the thoughts that persuade you to run to FOOD to eliminate the heartache, to run to DRINK to shut out the hurt, and to run to DRUGS to squash the anguish. Then, EXPOSE these interpretations to the Lord Jesus in EXCHANGE for His free-setting Truth. He knows you. He will tell you who you really are. Then, the Peace of God will rule in your heart, through His Spirit, allowing you to be thankful for who you are and what you have.
AND LET THE PEACE OF GOD RULE IN YOUR HEARTS, TO WHICH ALSO YOU WERE CALLED IN ONE BODY; AND BE THANKFUL
(Colossians 3:15).
Are you aware of the reason of your over-indulgence—negative, destructive beliefs instilled in your mind by the father-of-lies? Do you know what these beliefs are telling you?
What will it take for you to stop turning to someone or something other than the Lord Jesus to still the pain in your heart?
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, teach me to EMBRACE the emotional pain in my heart, instead of running away to excessiveness of all kinds. Help me to find and EXPOSE the underlying beliefs of abandonment, condemnation, rejection, and shame in my heart. Then, EXCHANGE these perturbing perceptions for Your Truth, my Lord, for without Your work of EXCHANGE in my heart, there will be no CHANGE in me—there will be no LIFE and no PEACE.
Maintain an Awareness
So, yes, the deepest urge in human nature seems to be the desire to be important–to matter. But, it is not the PRINCIPLE of wanting to be important that is wrong; instead, it is the way we adapt or the means we adopt to meet this most urgent desire of our hearts.