Are you Distressed and Agitated?

In reading John 14 tonight, I am almost in awe of how patient Jesus was with the disciples.  I always assumed that since the disciples had first-hand knowledge and witness to the works and miracles of Jesus that they wouldn’t have any doubts about who he is.  It surprises me to see that it wasn’t only Thomas who still had doubts of Jesus.   I don’t know if the doubts were of Jesus and who he said he was, or of the fact that no one had come across something of this magnitude before, and are not quite sure how to consume it.  It is almost as if our brains are not able to actually believe the miracle that is Jesus.

I love in John 14:1 that Jesus says DO NOT and its capitalized, so we know this is something we really should be working hard to not allow in our lives.  DO NOT let your hearts be troubled (distressed, agitated.)  You believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on God; believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely also on Me. 

I don’t know about you but I have some problems with the two things Jesus says that we are NOT to DO.   I struggle with not being distressed or agitated.   The meaning of distressed is to be suffering from anxiety, sorrow or pain.  Another definition of distressed is to be impoverished.   I can sit here and say, and believe, that I am not created to be a distressed Christian.  I was not created to live in anxiety, sorry, pain or to be impoverished.  I was created in the image of God, and we know that God is none of those things, so why then do I feel these things? 

The easy answer is to say that it’s the devil, and I should just fight off the attack and move along about my day.  While, this is indeed how we are to operate with an attack from the devil and his demons, it takes some time to get to this place. 

What if you are like me, and didn’t know, or realize, that I wasn’t supposed to operate in anxiety, sorry, pain or be impoverished?  What if these things felt as second nature to you, as walking, breathing and just existing in the world?  What if I went so far as to say, it was part of my identity or personality?

I am sure that some of you right now are in agreement with that paragraph.  I know people like this, I am, struggling not to be, one of these people. 

I have had anxiety all of my life.  I don’t know a day without anxiety.  Anxiety to me is part of my make-up.  It’s part of my identity, it’s part of who I am, and definitely part of my personality… so I thought.  

For many years, I believed all of those things.  I believed there was nothing I could do about my feelings of anxiety, worry, depression, sadness, and fear, or add whatever word works for you to this list.  I thought this was who I was, and I would have to learn to cope with them.  I was so incredibly wrong.  Clueless would be an appropriate word to use for me here. 

I really thought it was OK for me to live in a distressed or agitated state every day.  I saw my mom live like this, a lot of my friends lived like this, so it makes sense that I would live like this.   Until I started reading about the Characteristics of God and saw that none of those things make up who he is.   It was at that time that I realized, maybe, these were negative things in my life, and that I had a choice to have them or not have them.

It made some sense to me.  I had that choice to believe in Jesus.  I have a choice whether to have Faith or not.  I have a choice to follow my emotions or not, so it would make sense that living a distressed and agitated life, would be a choice, I was making.   It didn’t necessarily feel like a choice to me.  I never woke up and thought, oh, today I am going to be agitated all day.  No, I woke up agitated, or something quickly would happen to bring me to that place. 

 It never dawned on me that I allowed that feeling or emotion to stay with me! I never thought twice about the fact that just as I had chosen to feel distressed or agitated I could choose not to!   How great is that!  OK, so I’ve made up my mind, I can now choose to not be distressed or agitated.  Just that simple and easy, choice is made, now let’s get moving! 

Again, not how it works, if you are like me, and these emotions have become so ingrained in you, that they are more than second nature, it’s not going to be that easy to turn them off.   This is a decision you will likely have to make a thousand times every day.  You now have to change one pattern and create a new one.   We have to rewire our thinking to create the change.  We have to be on high alert, so that when we find ourselves starting to allow one of those emotions to rise up, that we stop it dead in its tracks.

Now, you say, how do you stop it?  As my good friend says, you replace the current negative emotion or thought with a new one.  You change the self-talk.  You stop allowing the devil to speak to you, as if he was you.

Since most of us are not born with worry, anxiety, depression, sadness, feeling troubled or nervous, this must be a characteristic we develop over time.  This is a way for satan to attack you, and since he probably started on you when you were very young, you weren’t aware of it happening.  By the time you were able to say, something isn’t right with this feeling, he had already developed and cultivated the ability to use this against you.  

None of these emotions are positive.  None of them are adding anything to your life or are keeping you from harm.  No, they are actually robbing you from joy, peace, contentment, feeling of ease, which all of these things we are supposed to feel.  I am not suggesting that we ride on a cloud every day with music playing around us, though it would be nice, but life happens every day.  I am not suggesting that just because you are Christian bad things don’t happen to you, because they do, we just know the one who can rescue us from those bad times.

The way to fight off this developed negative, emotion is to use the power of God over it.   Fight back!  Use your words, but instead of using them to defeat you, use them to empower you.  Turn the attack of the devil and use it for your good.   Take his lies and turn them back on him.  Tell him who your God is.  Tell him who you serve!  Stand in the Blood bought inheritance you have to be free of negativity.   Stop allowing yourself to be entrapped in the pits of hell by your own free will.

Some days this is easier than others.  Some days you just feel like the energy is gone for this fight, and that’s the day when the fight is the most important.  That’s the day you win ground over the enemy.  The day’s when you are riding on a cloud, you don’t need to fight because you feel good, life is moving nicely along and you are feeling calm, so the fight isn’t as strong that day.  The very next day, or it could be the next hour, that can all change, and you need to pull out those gloves of the Word and speak them against your attacker. 

You speak out life giving Words. You speak the Words of Jesus, if you can’t come up with anything, you just say the name Jesus, and every knee shall bow, on earth and below the earth.  You can simple just repeat Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, help me Jesus.   The key here is you must do something.  If you allow the thought to grow and fester you are giving satan dominion over your mind, emotions and life.   You are a Child of the Most High God, which means that satan has no power over your life, if you don’t let him.  It means you have the weapons in your arsenal to fight off the attacks that are being thrown at you.  You have the weapon of the Word and the Name!  Use it! 

If Jesus says in John 14:1 DO NOT let your hearts be troubled (distressed, agitated).  You believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on God; believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely also on Me.  That in itself is telling you that you can do it!  You have the ability to do it, if you take the time to trust the one who gave you this life that He will not let anything harm you, in fact, He will protect you with the whole armor of God, and then we have nothing to be distressed or agitated about!

Remember it says in the Word that No Weapon formed against me shall prosper, but every tongue that raises up against you in judgment; He shall prove to be in the wrong!   You have all you need right there!!!  You are fighting on Team Jesus… and he’s already won the war, now, go fight this Battle!!!