Do The Opposite

So I have realized it's so important to not follow your feelings in everything. Feelings have a tendency to altar your vision. It makes you zoom in on things you don't even know to be true. It can distort your view while also hindering your progress. Unfortunately, this is what happened to me. And so, what I thought was humble or selfless turned out to be fear at the root. In one conversation with my Life Coach Maggie I got immediate revelation! Gasp. I'll explain more.

At times, when I felt extremely low I realized it would cloud my judgement. See I never grew up confident. My parents were so great in teaching my sister and I to be selfless. Always looking after others and I am so glad for that.

However, Looking through this filter of fear, I noticed it was keeping me in the past. People who I thought loved me would criticize me and their comments stayed with me. It literally effected the view I had on myself and my own ability. It would come back to how I felt when I was told these things. Somehow their opinion of things became more important than my identity in Christ and any confidence I did have own ability was gone. I was left questioning everything and overthinking things. What a cycle of bondage I was in! It was so overwhelming and simply draining. While I have been delivered from people pleasing (idolatry) it seems there was a layer of this Father God wanted to remove from my heart. Fear has to go in any facet in my life. It holds me back from me being entirely free in my Identity in Christ. I cannot and will not serve him under this spirit. So I choose to be faith filled instead!

Just because we've been through something and/or came out of it doesn't mean it can't strike again.Remember it's the small foxes that spoil the vine. So for me moving forward looks like a lot of self reflection. What do I mean by that?

Well…

#1 Meditating: A lot of meditating on the Word of God to discipline my mind to stay on things above.

#2 Being Vigilant. I must be vigilant in this area if I have a tendency to overthink, so I can keep my heart pure from judgements and un-forgiveness. If I tend to fall into this trap I quickly repent because I know the loudest voice in my head and heart must be The Holy Spirit. So obedience is always better than what I feel. I want to do what is right!

#3 Prayer: My constant prayer is " Lord give me your perspective in this situation" . It helps to refocus me and release me from the outside pressure and expectations. In addition, it pushes me to intercede for the situation and look beyond myself. (super hard sometimes)

Looking back, I made so many decisions in fear and sometimes it's hard not to regret that. Sometimes things replay in mind about so many things I missed out. Or I pulled out from because of "how I felt". While I am happy I came to this revelation; I know time has been wasted on my end because of this lie I have believed. So moving forward my thinking has changed to: Am I making this decision in my Faith in Jesus Christ or my own personal fears from my past, present or future? I will then have to submit any of these "feelings" before the Cross. If HE is the anchor to my soul he surely can set me straight. So I must lay it down before Him. Remember, we don't live unto them anymore so our life as a believer is about surrendering our lives to the will of God! So every other area has to bow down to The Truth!

Currently as I write this I am going through something so tough emotionally as I get overwhelmed I have to continually stop and pray. I don’t want to react the old way Shanyse did before. I want to choose righteous living even when it hurts so bad. So I choose to live in obedience. I choose to let God fight the battle before me because on my own terms a lot of death would come. See, we have a tendency in our own perfectly imperfect (see what I did there) nature to mess things up. As our former pastor would say; "We know how to jack things up!” Yup, that’s exactly right for me. So if I don’t do things His way I am not ok. When you know dysfunction for so long and realize what healthy living is, you don’t want to do things that way anymore. So I made a commitment to stay focused on the prize. To pursue the presence of God over my own vindication. I know in time The Lord will always bring aid to me and eventually validation in my circumstance. He has been too faithful in the past for me to forget!

As a Christian, this is highly convicting because I know what the right decision is now. So, I am renewed in my thinking as I know deeply "it is impossible to please God without Faith" and The Lord does not give me a spirit of Fear. He has sound mind , power and love. Our choices are an indication of where we are in our path in this life. Will we choose our old way or His way?

In conclusion I will say this, where death is celebrated, choose Life. In a world where selfishness is celebrated, choose to serve others. Love people out of their own messes and choose to life FEARLess in yours. Going into 2023 that will literally be a focus of mine as I am being super intentional about my thoughts around decision making. For obedience is better than sacrifice….1 Samuel 15:22. So, when you FEEL to do one thing, do the opposite instead and tell me how it worked out for you!!!!!

Shanyse