Emotional Integrity

"Taking Control of My Thoughts"

   The first year and a half to two years after I rededicated my life to Jesus, I was voracious, I could not get enough, I would be doing two maybe three different studies at the same time.
   By the end of the second year I was teaching an adult Bible study on Sundays and usually leading another study during the week.
    I love to dig into His word, find little treasures. I heard the Lord when I studied, and I would get such amazing downloads from Him.


    Emotional Integrity was the latest download I received from the Lord.
     I want to start with Romans 12. I chose The Message for its ease of reading and not a literal translation. Read it in whatever translation you are comfortable with.....


<sup>Romans 12 (The Message)


   1-2</sup> So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 
     Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. 
      Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.


      ³ I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.


     ^4-6   In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? 
       So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.


       ^7-8  If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.


     ^9-10  Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.


    ^11-13   Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.


    ^14-16   Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.


    ^17-19   Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."


     ^20-21   Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.


  This chapter is easily summed up: Love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength.


   We are called to be bold, to step out and to step it up, it is imperative that we are intentional with our emotional integrity.


   Our cultures today constantly bombard us with "It's all about me", "Do it my way", "Have it your way", "Just do it", "You deserve it".
    Watch TV or go see a movie, you see all the emotions running the actors lives. Out of control emotions, deceit, manipulation, emotional mind games are just a few examples of poor emotional integrity. Sad thing is, we have come to see this as normal adult behavior.
     We have to know what emotional integrity is, and how to grow into it. If we are going to be steadfast in our calling, we must be intentional with it, not only in our own lives, but also when we minister to the world.


  Emotional Integrity starts with learning how to take our every thought captive for Jesus. (2 Corinthians 10:5)
   We have around 10,000+ thoughts a day run through our minds, how in the world do I suppose to keep control over that?? It takes training!, but most of all you can not do it alone, you need Jesus. When Jesus left this world He sent a Helper to help us in our daily struggles and to help us accomplish the Great Commission, the Holy Spirit. Read Acts 2, Pentecost. 

John 14:15-19
    If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. 

      "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

      And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 

      even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.                 

     "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 

      Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 

    Emotional Integrity, Keeping our thoughts captive.  


      Your walking down the street and you see an attractive man or woman. How far do you let your mind run with it? or does it continue to go down paths of lust?
       When you get a text or an e-mail, Do you try to read between the lines? She said this, but I think she meant this: see how quickly we let our thoughts run free?
       Your best friend ignores you and walks by without saying "Hello". Do we think "What did I do?" do we think to ourselves "If they are going to treat me this way I won't be their friend!"
       See how reading into something allows our thoughts to control our emotions. The truth of the matter could have been they were focused on what happen in the car earlier, maybe a problem with their child. It had nothing to do with you but you have already become emotionally out of control. You have made it all about you.


   Our thoughts are not reality!


   When we minister to others we must keep our thoughts captive and not allow ourselves to judge that person.
     I have always said "Say what you mean and mean what you say"
     Can you tell I'm not very good at being "politically correct"?


   Another way to look at it is "Where my thought life goes, my life goes also"
   What this means if our thoughts are righteous and noble, our life will reflect that in how we live and our actions and decisions.
  Proverbs 25:28
       Like a city whose wall are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.


     If we allow the lack of self-control to persist in our lives we will become desensitized to controlling our thoughts. We will begin to to justify our decisions to our own gains. Each thought will give birth to another going a little further each time. One day our thoughts will give way to actions....like adultery. Our one thought that we allowed to go free and un-challenged is now causing pain for others and yourself.
     What other examples are there of our thoughts controlling our emotions/actions? Envy, pride, jealousy, anger, deceit. How do any of these benefit our walk with Jesus?


      Have you heard someone say "the devil made me do it"? Satan might have tempted them, but they chose an action.


      I have given some examples of keeping Emotional Integrity, as you can see it all starts with our thought life.

      
Your probably thinking about times when you allowed your thoughts to run free and un-challenged, that's good, you have to recognize it first...now keep them captive. It takes training our thoughts every day. The world is full of triggers that want our minds to run free. 


When your thoughts start to break free..PRAY. 
Your on your way to emotional integrity.
   
      

"Play It Safe??..Be Bold!!!"

 Hebrews 11:6

   “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

One of the myths that has been crippling to Christianity for years is that Jesus has called us to “play it safe” "be tolerant"…when that was not taught or how Jesus or His followers followed the scriptures. 

Acts 20:24
      But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 




Galatians 2:20
       I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 


       Jesus did not "play it safe" , Paul did not "play it safe" , the disciples did not "play it safe". We are called to be bold as the church did in Acts.

Acts 4:18-31
       So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 

 But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." 

  And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. 

  For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old. 

  When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 

  And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 

  who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, "'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 

  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed'-- 

  for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 

  to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 

 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 

  while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 

  And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

    Do you shy away and avoid sharing your faith or your testimony with others for fear of persecution? In the face of great hardships and persecution the "Acts Church" chose to pray for boldness. They did not "play it safe", they stepped forward in the name of Jesus.
     I am not saying they condemned and judged...NO.. they loved and spread Jesus's message with compassion. Risky?? no not at all, they had a great insurance policy! They had Jesus in their hearts, living in them, they were filled with  Holy Spirit and God was on their side.


Romans 8:31-33
       What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 

           He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 

           Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 

   How do I know if God is leading me or if it is my own idea? That's a great question. How many times have you done nothing because you lacked the faith to step forward? When I have a leading I believe to be from God, I ask myself three things.

1.) Is it in direct conflict with the word of God? The Holy Spirit will not lead us down a path that is in conflict with the word of God.

2.) It stays on your mind, dominating your every thought. The more you dwell on it, the more brilliant the light shines and the hotter the fire in you to "make it happen"

3.) Seek the advise of Godly brothers and sisters. Do they affirm your thoughts? 

    Proverbs 15:22 tells a to seek counsel to be successful. 

  If you can answer "Yes" to all three questions, with no reservations, I believe your on the right track. Be bold, Step out there.

Romans 8:28

      And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

 Christians can not sit at home and hide. We cannot go to church and fellowship and turn a blind eye to what is going on outside the churches doors.

    There are around 2.2 Billion people in the world that profess to be Christian, that's about 1/3 of the worlds population. It is the #1 "religion" in the world. 

     What would happen if all those who profess to be christian acted, taught and shared the same as those in that little church in Acts did.. with boldness??

   Brothers and sisters make today, the day you really start living as Jesus taught. He lives within each and every one of us. We can make a difference. The great revivals of the past were started with and love and compassion as Jesus taught. They (revivals) did not become great by spreading fear and judgement.

   God bless you always!

rebel.deacon@gmail.com