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The body of Christ is so incredibly blessed to have men that are tremendously gifted and eager to serve God’s people in leadership roles. They nurture us in God’s Word and help us to grow in Christ, but sometimes women of God need to connect the dots spiritually AND emotionally. When there’s a disconnect, and we lack the tools to strategize ourselves in areas that aren’t commonly broached from the pulpit, we’re left grabbling for solutions. God is willing and able to help us, but our faith is short-circuited when we lack knowledge. We find ourselves hitting a brick wall with tweezers instead of a sledgehammer. This will ultimately lead to emotional burnout or exhaustion, and cause the blahs to linger rather than dissipate.
The ‘blahs’ is defined as an emotional and/or mental funk. It’s a landing strip for what many people refer to as an in-between state; not happy, but not exactly sad either. Some women define it as being somewhat out of sorts. Most of us know what it is to feel our best, but when you just don’t seem to be hitting the mark, and you don’t understand why, it can be extremely challenging to get over the hump.
Back in the day, folks, men and women alike, would attribute women feeling not-quite-like-themselves to menstrual cycles, hormones, or menopause. The danger in doing this of course is downgrading emotional wellness, or the lack thereof, to a temporary and expected out-of-sorts phase. This may attribute to some women seeking the wrong solutions or accepting the falsehood that they will never really ‘feel terrific’ emotionally. There’s no question that chemical changes in the body can aid emotional imbalance, but we need to open ourselves to the possibility that there’s something deeper going on; and it isn’t just about losing estrogen.
As Christian women, we’re taught to have faith and to give fear it’s walking papers. I will venture to say that most of us are not taught that emotional wellness is a significant part of our spiritual journeys in Christ. We’re not taught that hurtful or harmful emotions buried in our youth can come back with a vengeance in our older years. We’re not taught how to unpack emotions that are working against our faith, and we’re not given a methodology to restack the deck in a way that yields self-affirming confidence and unwavering faith in Christ.
Thank the Lord that Jesus didn’t put a qualifier on his invitation in Matthew 11:28(NLT) when he said “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” We don’t have to know exactly what ails us to take it to Jesus, but sometimes, we take it to everyone else but Jesus. Aside from that one special day of the week, some of us completely cut him out of our emotional lives altogether. This will ultimately rob us of the kind of joy that only he can give.
We’re not suggesting that every day will be like skipping through sunflower fields, but Sisters, it’s available from God to emotionally experience an overall sense of peace and wellbeing most of the time. We can experience bliss on the other days of the week too.
Romans 14:17(NLT) tells us, “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” This verse sets a goal for us in motion, and it is one of falling in total submission to the Kingdom of God through the Holy Spirit. It’s not about what we eat or drink. It’s not about being the most religious person on the pew. It’s living a life that is submitted to the Holy Spirit totally. We can’t do what he does. He’s the one who works within us. He’s the one who leads, guides, and directs us into all truth. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that He produces fruit in our lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That’s the good stuff we ought to be aiming for.
Sisters, we got a lot in this world coming against our ‘feel good’, trying to tear us down and make us feel bad about ourselves. We’re constantly bombarded with this stuff daily. It’s a spiritual attack, and it has to be combated with a spiritual weapon. Your emotions are a big part of your soul. God is not going to control our emotions because this is a territory He’s placed solely under our self-government. We have to make the right choices for our emotional well-being, and this includes a more heighten awareness of where we are and where we need to be emotionally. It also affirms that our eyes are open to both the external and internal supernatural workings that will take place when we put Christ is in the driver’s seat. Learning to lean on the Holy Spirit in this area will convey that we are willing to make some changes, and most importantly, it conveys that we are willing to be taught how to switch off the wrong valves and turn on the right ones.
We should also note that sometimes the blahs aren’t a matter of something we can quickly dispense. They are usually a signal that we need to take a more thorough look under the hood. Holy Spirit will help us do this, but he will not go where we’re not allowing him to go. It’s not the joy of self, but the joy of the Lord that should be our emotional goal. It’s a spiritual state of being that requires us to comb through some emotional stuff we may have avoided far too long. Don’t block God’s access. He ordained that His Spirit should live inside of us, so that he can help us the most. He has a front-row seat to how we really feel, and his mission is to produce spiritual yummies that will ultimately send our blahs packing. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Combating the Blahs” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2018. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.
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