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11 – Emotional Battlegrounds
Emotions are an amazing gift from God, but they can also take us on a wild ride when we least expect—or want—it. Come listen in while we identify three key emotional battlegrounds—and the practical ways you can not just endure but win the fight.
Show Notes
At no other time of the year do we experience such highs and lows. So how do we avoid those holiday blues? How do we maintain an even keel in the face of emotional ups and downs? In this episode, we’ll learn how to build a foundation of truth to rest on when we’re weary and down and prone to believe the enemy’s lies.
Three battlegrounds that Especially come to life during this time of year:
1. A sense of disappointment in who and what you are.
This battleground is brutal. And it’s often so deep-seated we don’t even realize that’s what we’re struggling with. We think it’s all these external things going on, when in reality it has to do with what’s going on inside of us.
Our tools to overcome this:
- God knows us deeply and intimately.
Psalm 139:1-5; 13-16 “O Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in behind and before, You have laid Your hand upon me…For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.”
- God loves us.
Ephesians 3:18-19 “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
- We have value.
Romans 5:6 “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.”
2. A sense that nothing has changed or improved with your writing.
Our tools to overcome this:
- Nothing that is happening to you is a surprise to God. He is sovereign, and He’s got you where He wants you.
Psalm 139:16 “…all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.”
- Patience keeps our focus on God, rather than everything else. We rest in God. We trust in God. We focus on the task at hand.
Habakkuk 2:3 TLB “But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!”
3) A sense of not being able to deal with another year of the struggle.
Our tools to overcome this:
- God knows our needs on this battleground and supplies us with the strength we need. We don’t rely on our own strength, but on His.
Ephesians 6:10 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.”
- We need God’s strength to trust and persevere. The enemy knows that by wearing us down he can take us out of the fight. But God knows that persevering builds us up.
James 1:3-4 “Your faith will be tested. You know that when this happens it will produce in you the strength to continue. And you must allow this strength to finish its work. Then you will be all you should be. You will have everything you need.”
Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
We’d love to hear from you!
Are you in the trenches? What tactics are working for you?
Got a topic you’d like us to cover? Let us know!
Tweetable:
How do writers survive, and even triumph, through emotional ups and downs? (Click to tweet)
