Thursday, May 21, 2015

How to Survive in your Pit!

Hey Mighty Warriors, How y'all doing tonight? So I apologize for not posting as I usually do. Some stuff has happened in my life that I had to take some personal time off and spend it with family and most importantly God. The verse I want to share with you today comes from Psalm 40:1-3. Hear the Word of the Lord,
  
I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
    out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
    and gave me a firm place to stand. 
 He put a new song in my mouth,
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
    and put their trust in him.

So I will share with you parts of what has happened. So right now I am living at a Stabilization Center because my anxiety just got a huge hold of my life and caused some serious problems in my life. I can honestly tell you that choosing to live at this place was the best decision I ever made. It has helped me understand more about my mental illness and my anxiety in a whole new way. Today's blog post I want to focus on living in your pit. You pit could be whatever it is for you. Maybe it is depression, anxiety, fear, divorce, grief and so on. So one of my mom's friend mailed me a devotional by Beth Moore "Looking up"
This devotional is amazing. I encourage everyone to go and check out this book. So that verse I started out with has really been a truly uplifting verse for me especially during the tough days I am here at the Center but the cool thing is during those difficult times I truly feel God's presence within me. He can do that for you and will be there for you if you call on him and lean on him for peace, love and hope. So we all know life sometimes doesn't go the way we want it to. If it did God wouldn't have sent his only son into this world to be brutally beaten, mocked and killed. He did it for one reason because we are His beloved and He loves us wider then any ocean, higher than any skyscraper and deeper than any pit we have ever been in. So the scripture I started out with has to do with many things. It references being patient and waiting on God's timing and not our own. The fact He hears my every cry and wipes away every tear and our rescuer when we are in the deepest part of our pit. He is our solid rock on which we stand, He will never cause us to stumble. A reading out of my devotional says this " If you're in a pit, you don't have to stay in it. Even if you've been there your whole life, you can call it a day. Even if you somehow- at least in your own mind- deserve the pit you live in, you're still not stuck there. Maybe your the noble type trying to make the best of your pit You keep wondering why you can't get satisfied there, why you aren't mature enough to be content where you are. After all, didn't the apostle Paul tell us that we should learn to be content in any circumstance?
Has it occurred to you that maybe a pit is one place where you're not supposed to be content? Maybe you should thank God you're not. Some things weren't meant to be accepted. A pit is one of them. Quit trying to make the best of it. It's time to GET OUT!! Will you think outside the box- Outside YOUR pit and accept the truth that God doesn't want you in there any longer?"
The prayer at the end of this specific devotional reading is this
" I praise You, Lord, for being my Deliver, my rescuer, my redeemer! I know I'm not supposed to be content in my pit. And I believe You can get me out- You want me out- of it. I will look to you to give me strength to lead me to a place of true contentment.
So for example I have learned my triggers that cause my anxiety to arise and cause me to in my term "being in the zone" So for me when I am in the zone I lose track of what is going on around me. I can't hear anything and I can literally feel my heart pounding faster and faster. I found that bible journaling is very helpful. I have a note book and print out pictures and i trace them and then later color the pictures in. This has become so helpful. I encourage you to try it out. If you like pintrest just look up bible journaling there will be some cool ideas to get started and maybe even save them and you can try doing them yourself.
I usually reference a song at the end of my blog but I am unable to post the videos due to content being blocked.
But you can look it up on your computer if you go to www.YouTube.com and search Kari Jobe I am not alone the video should appear and I feel this song speaks truth,hope and love.
Blessings Mighty Warriors
~MM