Tag: freedom

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Focus Friday: Let’s Focus on Freedom

I write about my struggles and failures quite often for Focus Friday. I don’t mind doing that because I figure it just may help someone else who is going through a similar situation.

But the other day, I was reminded that people don’t constantly want to see that in other people’s lives. They want to see victory, too.

Here’s the quote I heard in episode five (“Anger Must Fall”) of Goliath Must Fall by Louie Giglio (it’s available on RightNow Media if you want to watch it yourself):

“God doesn’t get glory from our lives when there’s a giant with its foot on our neck….When we’re always talking about the downside of life, the weakness of life, the thing we wish we could change about life. We’re not giving God glory as an ultimate savior, a defender, and a fighter and a champion in our lives.”

So I thought I’d brag on God a little bit this week and tell you a few good things happening in my life.

My emotional health keeps improving. Sure, there are ups and downs, but the general trajectory is upward. When I have a bad day I don’t turn it into a bad week. God has been teaching me all kinds of things about myself and about life. I give him all the glory when I am able to catch negative thoughts and emotions. He gives me the ability to find the distortions in some of my thoughts and turn them around. He helps me really feel the negative emotions that bubble up at times, spending an appropriate amount of time with them and then choosing thoughts that will lead to more positive emotions.

My physical health is better. I’ve been experimenting with what I’m eating and how I’m moving in recent months, and I’m seeing changes in the right direction. Slow, steady growth in this area is important as I make little changes that will last. I don’t want to get bogged down in what the scale says, so I’m focusing on how much God loves me just the way I am right now. That said, I feel like he’s helping me choose better things to do with my urges to overeat. That feels good, even if the scale doesn’t reflect huge changes.

I’m making progress on my book. Most of you know that I’ve been working on a book about my experience with depression and how we can all stay healthy emotionally. I’ve been putting in a little more time on it lately and I’m seeing the word count go up (funny how that works!). The giant of fear has been standing with its foot on my neck in this area for a long time, but I am finally allowing God to be my champion. He has the power to keep that giant at bay.

I’m not saying that life is perfect all the time. I’m finally realizing that life is a mixture of good and bad, positive and negative. That’s okay. God is with us through all of it. We can lean on him during the hard times and praise him in the good times. (We can also praise him during the hard times and lean on him in the good times.)

I’ll keep sharing inspiration and ideas for getting through the difficult parts of life, but never forget that we are all free because of what Jesus Christ did for us. Isn’t that awesome?

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1 NIV)

Are you bogged down by life’s problems? How can focusing on God help you to live in freedom, even in the midst of hard times?

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Focus Friday: Let’s Focus on Not Going Back

I slept in today.

It worried me because there was a time more than a year ago when I couldn’t seem to get up on time.

Every morning I would hit the snooze over and over or turn off the alarm and not get up. I moved my alarm clock across the room, but I would still turn it off and crawl back in bed.

That’s what happened today. I shut off the alarm and then I made the choice to get back under the covers and sleep for another hour and a half.

It felt unavoidable, but I was conscious of the moment when it could have gone either way.

I was standing up after shutting off the alarm. The next action was normally to turn on the light, head for the bathroom, then get dressed and go read my Bible for a while before exercising.

This time, my hand didn’t immediately reach out to turn on the light. I debated with myself for about five seconds and then I turned and headed for the bed.

When I woke up later, I felt so defeated. I didn’t like remembering how hard it had been to get out of bed so long ago. I feared I was going back to my old bad habit.

How silly! This was one day of sleeping in after months and months of getting up on time. I’m not going back. I know how good it feels to do the right thing.

There are areas of my life where I choose to do what God wants me to do quite easily. I’m free from those habits and sins and I’ll never go back.

There are other areas where I can’t quite seem to get free.

Overeating.

Procrastination.

Negative thinking.

As I think about those areas, I realize that I can usually notice the moment where it can go either way.

When I open the cupboard door, but before I reach for the chips.

When I think about doing some writing, but before I click to open Facebook instead.

When I notice a self-condemning thought, but before I agree with it and add a few more criticisms.

With Holy Spirit help and lots of practice, I can choose to do the right thing in each of those areas. I can get free and move ahead to better ways of eating, acting, and thinking.

Maybe you have some areas of your life that feel overwhelming and inescapable. Can you figure out the moment where things could go either way? Let’s practice noticing that moment and making the best choice right then. At first, we may only make a good choice two times out of ten. If we keep praying and practicing, eventually it will become six times out of ten…eight times out of ten…and then ten out of ten.

Once we’re free of those old habits and sins, let’s determine that we’re not going back!

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1 NIV)

Are you stuck in any bad patterns of acting or thinking? How can focusing on God help you to get free from those things and move forward in freedom?

As I was writing this week’s post, I couldn’t stop thinking about this old Keith Green song, so I thought I’d share it here. After being freed from slavery, the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt. Let’s not be like them!