#1 Emotional Killer

#1 Emotional Killer
In my opinion the number one emotional killer is our thoughts. I don’t think we realize how truly powerful they are as we don’t share the worst ones with our friends or family. Why is that? For me it’s probably embarrassment or fear of being locked up. The thoughts that come out of no where and take you on a mental tangent, having conversations with people that never happened and probably never will. How much time do we waste having these imaginary journeys? How many conversation have you had in your mind that never transpired or worse yet how many bad scenarios have you played out in your mind that never happened? I know I’m going out on a limb here, again, sharing some of my thoughts but I can’t imagine I’m alone on this.
For example last night the kids and I were driving home and it was a beautiful night so I opened the sun roof. Out of no where this thought pops in my head, what if a space ship flew over us and sucked me out of my seat and replaced me with someone who looked like me but didn’t have my memory. That sent my thinking to, could a family who lost a loved one be happy with someone who looked just like the person that died but didn’t have any of their memories? Where do these thoughts come from? Those thoughts weren’t particularly harmful, a bit weird yes but not harmful. I have had other thoughts like, no one really cares about me, I’m never going to have a partner, I’m not going to have anywhere to live, what if I get sick, am I loveable? These are definitely in the harmful category. I’m just being real here, you have your own list of unhappy thoughts you ponder on. If we stay with this thought pattern our mind can kill our happiness and rob us of our joy. It can mess with our self-esteem and form false opinions. We start to isolate ourselves and lose trust in people who really do care about us. We can get depressed or angry or worse yet have physical or mental problems if we make this place our reality.
We hear more and more that stress kills people. More people are taking medication for their emotional well being, I’m not knocking medication I’m just saying let’s start with taking over our thoughts.
As you know I’m a very visual person and there have been many times I will see a big bird flying around and hear a small bird squawking away. That little bird will be flying after that bigger bird, dive bombing and actually hitting that big bird. I think to myself what guts this little bird has it’s messing with a bird twice its size. This little bird is tenacious, it’s not backing down and it’s making all kinds of noise. I figure it must be talking “bird trash” to that big bird. Does this bird know how little he is compared to the other one? Obviously the bigger bird is messing with the little birds nest or something that means a lot to him because he’s going crazy up there and the funny thing is I have never scene the little bird lose. The big bird always ends up flying away and I’m always amazed and encouraged by that little bird.
The Holy Spirit showed me that’s how we have to handle negative thoughts, no matter how big or real they appear in our minds we have to attack them till they go away. God knew we would deal with this issue and talked about it in the Bible.
2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Notice He doesn’t say some He says every thought that doesn’t come from Jesus. Just like that little bird every time a big bird/unhealthy thought enters our minds we have to squawk like that little bird, speak out loud and make that thing fly away. Fight for what’s important to you, your mind, will and emotions. This is one of those battles that only you can fight because you’re the only one who knows what you’re thinking (besides Jesus).
How do we combat these thoughts? You have to counter the first thought by replacing it with another one. You have to let the bad thought know it’s a lie by telling yourself the truth.
Philippians 4:8 Whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, I will think on and weigh and take account of these things (fix my mind on them).
Message Bible: Summing it all up, friend, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious-the best, not worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God who makes everything work together will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
2 Timothy 1:7 God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound.
I know our thoughts are powerful I just want to remind you that YOU have power over them. Take control of them, every one of them and replace the ones that try to harm you with the things that God says. Trust someone with how you’re feeling, chances are they have had a similar thought. Together let’s start taking captive every thought and replacing them with healthy thoughts of who we are in Christ. Be as tenacious as that little bird at protecting your nest, your mind.
I think of Tinker Bell when she’s teaching kids to fly she yells “happy thoughts, happy thoughts” and soon they are up in the air. We don’t need fairy dust, we have God’s word. Let’s turn the #1 emotional killer into the #1 life saver and take captive every thought and fly like that little bird!


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