This week, we will focus on emotional and spiritual health. I will start with my sermon of July 17, 2011 as it relates to peace of mind and confidence. I am posting it as one piece. Enjoy!
What if I lose my job? What if the bank forecloses on my house? What if my neighbour is a criminal? What if I get scammed? What if I have a terminal disease? What if I don't get someone to marry me? What if my marriage fails? What if my in-laws don't accept me? What if they hurt me? What if my children don't make it? What if I don't get the job? What if I end up a failure in life? What if..? What if...? The list of people and things that scare us seems to be growing steadily. We seem to be losing peace of mind and confidence in everything and everyone everyday. How did many of us become so crippled by fear with little or no confidence left? The answer I found is BROKEN TRUST!
What if I lose my job? What if the bank forecloses on my house? What if my neighbour is a criminal? What if I get scammed? What if I have a terminal disease? What if I don't get someone to marry me? What if my marriage fails? What if my in-laws don't accept me? What if they hurt me? What if my children don't make it? What if I don't get the job? What if I end up a failure in life? What if..? What if...? The list of people and things that scare us seems to be growing steadily. We seem to be losing peace of mind and confidence in everything and everyone everyday. How did many of us become so crippled by fear with little or no confidence left? The answer I found is BROKEN TRUST!
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Life is all about relationships and every relationship is built and sustained by TRUST. When trust is broken, it is not just the relationship that suffers but also the people involved and everything around them. This is what I mean:
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One day I watched a father teach his young son a lesson on trust. The father told his son to climb up a relatively high brick wall. When the young boy did, he instructed him to jump from the height; that he would catch him and not let him fall. Trusting his father, the boy jumped and as soon as he did, his dad moved away and let the little boy hit the ground. With tears in his eyes he cried: Dad Why did you do that to me? His dad said 'just to teach you a very important lesson: "TRUST NO ONE INCLUDING ME". Although it was only a scene in a movie years ago, each time I remember the scene I still shudder because I know it happens people all the time.
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Many of us have been directly or indirectly taught a lesson on TRUST like that little boy by people close to us. Family members have taken advantage of us and best friends have betrayed us again and again. After many of such disappointments, deceptions and betrayals, we have become failure prone and rigidly resolved to never trust anyone, ANYONE, including God!
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Truth is, when we settle for a life of 'TRUST NO ONE', we do ourselves more harm than good. We start living in fear and losing peace of mind. The 'what if' questions rush in like a flood and we find ourselves always expecting things to go wrong and expecting people to disappoint us even when those people have great intentions. Usually, things turn out the way we expect.
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Allow me to share a very valuable lesson on TRUST with you. I believe it will help you rebuild your broken trust and regain your lost peace and confidence if you are affected. .
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Allow me to share a very valuable lesson on TRUST with you. I believe it will help you rebuild your broken trust and regain your lost peace and confidence if you are affected. .
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Paralysis of the mind: Nothing paralyzes the mind like fear. Whether it is fear of disappointment, fear of failure, fear of deception, the effect is the same: paralyzed mind. Fear overworks your mind and kills your creativity. Fear makes fool of a genius and cripple a giant. I have seen intelligent people fail job interviews because they were too nervous. Unfortunately, we have coined fancy words to describe fear such as nervousness and scary. "I am so nervous right now" or "That scares me to death" Please do not accept this as a normal state of the mind. When God created us he did not give us the spirit of fear but of love and sound mind. If you are always nervous, scared or suspicious, you need to take steps to deal with the root of the problem: broken trust.
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Loss of credibility: One of the worst things that can happen to a person is to lose credibility. When a person loses credibility, that person also loses respect, social acceptance and self esteem. One way to lose your credibility is to trust no one. The more suspicious of people you are, the more suspicious of you people would be and the more your relationships will suffer. Very few people would trust you if you don’t trust them.You cannot be a skeptic and earn trust. It takes trust to build trust. Have you noticed that parents who demonstrate to their spouse or children that they trust them often earn their children's trust more than those who suspect their spouse or children? If your spouse or child knows you don’t trust them, they would likely say, "even if I tell her the truth she won’t believe, she doesn't trust me anyway so, whatever! If you want people to trust you and enjoy your relationship, you need to let them know that you trust them and give them room to build on that trust.
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Loss of credibility: One of the worst things that can happen to a person is to lose credibility. When a person loses credibility, that person also loses respect, social acceptance and self esteem. One way to lose your credibility is to trust no one. The more suspicious of people you are, the more suspicious of you people would be and the more your relationships will suffer. Very few people would trust you if you don’t trust them.You cannot be a skeptic and earn trust. It takes trust to build trust. Have you noticed that parents who demonstrate to their spouse or children that they trust them often earn their children's trust more than those who suspect their spouse or children? If your spouse or child knows you don’t trust them, they would likely say, "even if I tell her the truth she won’t believe, she doesn't trust me anyway so, whatever! If you want people to trust you and enjoy your relationship, you need to let them know that you trust them and give them room to build on that trust.
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Loss of peace: When a person looses peace they become restless, irritable and critical of everyone and everything. Depending on how long people remain in such situation, they could become mentally disturbed. Peace is to the mind what vitamin is to the body. Peace enhances your metabolism, vitality and alertness. When a person loses peace, that person also loses sleep and when you lose sleep your health suffers. Many people suffering from sleep disorder, panic disorder, and anxiety disorder may not realize that their problems are rooted in a broken trust. Whether these disorders are in children or adults, we must not accept them as mere medical or psychological ailments as there are no known medical or psychological cure for them. Loss of sleep due to loss of peace could very well be a spiritual problems. If you are a believer you have immunity because the bible says God gives his beloved sleep Psalm 127:2. Believers are supposed to sleep like babies and wake up like soldiers. Rebuild your broken trust and regain your peace
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WHEN YOU REBUILD YOUR BROKEN TRUST YOU REGAIN YOUR LOST PEACE AND CONFIDENCE
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Friends, we do ourselves disfavour by thinking too hard, being too careful and taking all available insurances to protect ourselves 'in case' something goes wrong. Am I saying you should trust everybody you meet on the road? No! Actually you should not trust everybody. For example, you cannot trust the devil, he is the father of lies and he works through people. However, you cannot afford to not trust the most important person in your life -God! When you trust God he will take care of the people and situations you cannot handle. With all our carefulness don't we still fall victims of deceptions and fraud? The only cure for fear is trust in a faithful God, and not some self-protection strategy.
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Why trust God?
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1. God is not like everyone else. God is the greatest of all. He is Alpha and Omega, The Ultimate, The Almighty, The Most High and Most Powerful. God is The Creator of Heaven and Earth, The I am that I am, The Lord of Lords, The First and Last. Beside God there is no other. His word is law and his power is supreme. Once God decrees a thing, everyone must live by it because he is the Governor of the Universe. God has the final say on every matter. If you cannot trust God you certainly can never trust anyone else because everyone else is inferior to God in terms of power and sovereignty. If the most powerful cannot protect you, who can?
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2. God has the highest integrity: It is simply impossible for God to lie. God means what he says and says what he means. His loving kindness is better than life, faithfulness is as high as the sky. God's word can never fall flat and that makes him the most dependable one ever. If you cannot trust God you certainly cannot trust anyone else because everyone else is inferior to God in terms of power and sovereignty. If God's word is not true then there is no truth
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3. Without faith, you cannot please God: Christianity is a walk of faith. None of us have seen God but we know God is. How? by faith. We know we are saved by faith. We know we have a home in heaven by faith. Faith please God and doubt displease him. Imagine a baby being cautious in the arms of her parents because she is afraid the mother might drop her. If we don't learn to trust God we cannot please him or receive from him. For heaven to intervene in earthly matters, humans must act in faith. We must permit or forbid things on earth for them to be permitted or forbidden in heaven because God has given human the dominion over life on earth. If we trust our own abilities God will leave us to our own abilities because faith is the medium through which God moves on earth. Bible says Jesus could not do much miracle in his home town because the people did not believe him.
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God is the most powerful and the most reliable one available but if we do not trust him, he cannot help us. When you trust God, you permit him as it were (Matthew 16:19; 18:18) to take care of people and situations you cannot take care of. He will give you peace and sweet sleep even in the storm. Those fears and suspicions that ruin our valuable relationships will go away and we will begin to live in harmony with our loved ones. Even when it looks like you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death you will not be afraid of any evil because you know God is with you and you trust God. It takes faith to move the hand of God.
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If you want to start rebuilding your broken trust in God, start by becoming a person of integrity. It seems easier for us to believe in the integrity of God when we have integrity ourselves. Reliable people tend to think of everyone else as reliable and unreliable people tend to think of everyone else as unreliable. You don't have to be perfect just try to keep your promises and be honest about everything. Besides, God is not looking for perfect people but honest people. When integrity becomes our lifestyle, faith in God becomes our second nature. At that point, we can sleep like babies even in the midst of terror and everything will be alright because we trust God!
For comments and questions, please contact me at everydaylifeblogging@gmail.com
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If you want to start rebuilding your broken trust in God, start by becoming a person of integrity. It seems easier for us to believe in the integrity of God when we have integrity ourselves. Reliable people tend to think of everyone else as reliable and unreliable people tend to think of everyone else as unreliable. You don't have to be perfect just try to keep your promises and be honest about everything. Besides, God is not looking for perfect people but honest people. When integrity becomes our lifestyle, faith in God becomes our second nature. At that point, we can sleep like babies even in the midst of terror and everything will be alright because we trust God!
For comments and questions, please contact me at everydaylifeblogging@gmail.com
