Spiritual Growth Articles for
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You desire momentary happiness. You have periods of emotional euphoria, followed by periods of depression—all dependent on your ever-changing circumstances and disappointing relationships.
Since you are a Christian woman, you know it’s wrong to turn to drugs or alcohol or to extra-marital affairs to satisfy your longing for happiness. Because you are weak-willed, instead of placing your faith in God, you place your faith in
- your faith; i.e., “My faith will get me through”;
- in food, religious experiences, romance novels or other things that make you feel good for a time. These artificial binges produce the euphoric times of your up-and-down cycle; and/or
- the experiences of others, specifically the experiences of a man or woman who is strong willed and appeals to your emotions rather than to your intellect.
You are more susceptible to man’s influence because of your insecurity and your weak will. Because your emotions dominate you, instead of the Spirit of the Lord, you lack the spiritual discernment to see the Hand of God in your relationships and circumstances. Therefore, you want the relationships and circumstances to change.
then all our lives would be so much better.”
You attempt to control others with emotional outbursts, emotional appeals, emotional bargains—which worsens your circumstances and drives away the people you love. These inflamed circumstances and deteriorating relationships—exacerbated by your own manipulation—then plunge you further into depression. You seek out emotional experiences to pull you up, and so the negative cycle of depression-euphoria continues.
to make me happy?” |
You need others to prop you up because you are very insecure. You think you will find steady emotional highs in the scaffolding of your circumstances and the frailty of your relationships.
And so you wonder,
- Why doesn’t my husband bring me flowers when he knows I’m so down?
- Why don’t my children be quiet while I’m tending my headache?
- Why don’t I have the spiritual experiences of other women whom I idolize?
- Why isn’t my life happy?
Depending on your current situation, you continue along one of three courses:
- You continue to turn to your binging—food, romance novels, spiritual experiences—to bring you the happiness you desire.
- You continue to place your faith in your weak faith.
- You read strong-willed people’s emotional appeals and interpretations of Scripture and follow them. You place your faith in man or woman, exchanging your current lifestyle for their feel-good image.
These strong-willed people claim to have found what emotional people want—the glory of the “highs” with very little “lows.” Some may even claim they do not sin anymore and, therefore, emotional lows are totally eliminated. They want to manipulate you into their ideal of the perfect Christian life, and your weak Will lets them. They seem emotionally secure; you want that security.
Why? Because misplaced faith, bingeing, and emotional experiences
they never satisfy your deeper need
of receiving God’s unconditional love.
do not transform you;
only Christ through His Spirit transforms.
with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Lord,
who is the Spirit.
~2 Corinthians 3:18
How can you begin when you are so overwhelmed, fearful, depressed, and angry?
Begin with the first step: Search God’s love letter to you. Find Scriptures that speak to you about His love for you. Be transformed as you renew your mind about the depth and breadth of His unconditional love for you. Meditate on that concept until it becomes a reality in your life.
Don’t know where to start? Don’t know what to believe?
and begin to renew your mind about how much
your heavenly Father loves you.
Or simply continue on to the Spiritual Growth section of this Christian website.
Your email address will only be used to send you these Guided Meditations.
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer
through Him who loved us.
~Romans 8:35a, 37
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