It’s Time to Choose

In our lives, many things happen beyond our control. Perhaps you have a wayward child, or you feel that your parents don’t love you. However, there are aspects of our lives that we can choose. So let us focus on the choices we can make that will prevent us from being gripped by anxiety, depression or hopelessness.

Choose to accept your situation and look for a support group. It’s natural for us to feel sad, upset and angry when bad situations happen. This is called the grieving stage. But don’t stay too long on this stage. Focus on the next stage which is the healing process. As believers, we should view situations with the perspective that the Lord is in charge of our lives and that he will not inflict us with unnecessary pain simply to harm us. It would be to our benefit if we could have a support group like a bible study group. Research says that having a social spiritual support group is one of the biggest protective layers against depression and anxiety. Having someone to listen and talk to will help us emotionally.

Choose to replace your core belief. Core belief is a set of strongly held convictions shaped by our thoughts, assumptions and experiences about ourselves and the world. Core beliefs are thoughts and not facts, these are thoughts that tell us “we are unlovable; we are worthless; we are good for nothing”. Don’t listen to these unhealthy thoughts, instead, talk to yourself by saying “I am lovable because I am beautifully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:13-14). “I am lovable because Christ died for me” (John 3:16). Learn to train your thoughts to view things from the lenses of God and not from your own or other people. Eph. 4:23 NLT says “Let the Holy Spirit renew our thoughts and attitudes”. Do not believe everything that you think. Phil. 4:8 says, “whatever is true… just, pure, lovely…or anything worthy of praise, we should think about these things.” For apostle Paul, thinking may not be enough, he further says in 4:9 that we should practice these things if we want to attain peace. Thinking will affect our feeling. Feeling will in turn affect our action. If we wish to change our feeling and action, we need to change our thinking pattern.