Control Your Thoughts Before They Control You

Control Your Thoughts Before They Control You

There are Christians who suffer Panic attacks or Anxiety attacks. These are often caused by irrational fears. In back of all irrational fears are rational fears.

We must get back to the rational fear in order to cope with the other symptoms. There are three categories of rational fear: death, pain and the opinions of others.

We begin life with a natural fear of death and pain. When the doctor spanks the new born it is pain that teaches us to breath. If we did not fear death we would soon do something stupid that would cause death.

While my mother was trying to teach me not to be controlled by my peers she would still often say, “It is a shame for the neighbors when you come in late!” Thus I was taught to fear the opinions of others, even people we do not like.

As we move away from these primary fears toward obsessions we generalize them and they gain more control over our lives. What can we do about these forces?

Even our Savior faced the rational fears when approaching His own death. First, He found that the will of His father was in conflict with His own. He prayed for His cup be changed. Now, we need never fear a cup but the things in the cup. You can see how we begin to move from the rational to the irrational whether it be death, pain or opinions of others by calling it a cup.

You may never want to go through any of these problems. But in allowing God to have His way we can go through. When confronted with irrational fear know that it is only the rational fears that we need to fear. Yet even those fears we can endure when we recall, “Since Jesus goes with me I’ll go--anywhere!”

You can then relax until the “storm passes by” Learn to think other thoughts.
Luke 22:42 “.. yet not my will, but yours be done." -- Pastor Van is a friend of America's KESWICK and will be serving as our Campus Pastor during the summer conference weeks

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 8; Job 36-37; Acts 15:22-41

Dig This Quote: Do not look down, brooding over your weakness! Do not look back upon your past, strewn with failure! Look up to the living Christ! All the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, 2 Cor. 1:20 -- F. B. Meyer

Determined Digging: Level 1: Psalm 30:5 Level 2: Psalm 101:1-5