Can we be thankful and pray to God in the midst of difficulties?

by with No Comment Spiritual growth

We are celebrating Thanksgiving this week, a special date to pray to God. It is also a date in which we can reflect on all the aspects concerning our lives, both good and bad, to learn from them, and thank God for all the things our hearts feel happy and grateful for.

Why pray to God

It is easy to be happy and grateful in good circumstances, for example, when:

  • everything goes well in our lives,
  • we manage our daily life without any mishaps,
  • we move forward in our jobs,
  • our family is healthy,
  • we feel we have been blessed
  • and nothing compromises our well-being.

With this in mind, I ask you, has it happened to you that you get out of the house on a sunny and beautiful day, breathing fresh air, and thank God for His wonderful creation?

Have you felt fully satisfied, grateful for having everything go well? But how have you felt on other days when the sky was gray and rainy? Have you given God thanks for a day like that, too? Are we grateful to God when it is a rainy day?

Why pray to God during difficulties

How do we feel when things do not go the way we planned? What do we do when we lose our jobs when the doctor tells us we have a terminal illness, when we lose a loved one, or when we have a child who is on drugs? Do we praise God, or do we murmur? What do we do? Are we grateful?

Let us remember what the Word of God says in 1 Thess. 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” In this verse, we have a reflection that is hard for us to process and accept: give God thanks in all circumstances. It is not an easy task. It is not something that comes naturally to human beings. Adversities absorb us, and we feel unhappy and experience setbacks. We do not feel like giving thanks. Many times, we even murmur things against God.

Pray to Good, don’t murmur

Did you know that it is easy for us to murmur that so many times that we do not even notice it? But murmuring is the opposite of giving thanks. Complaints are the opposite of trust. Murmuring against your spouse when the rice he/she made burns or when the food is not ready on time is the opposite of loving acceptance. At that point, are we grateful for having food on our table? Are we grateful for our wife or husband serving food that he/she perhaps has made with dedication? Are we grateful?

The dictionary defines a complaint as an accusation. When lamenting and complaining, the person is accusing God of not managing the details of his/her life well. But, on the contrary, praising releases God’s power into our lives. Therefore, today, we are going to discover three steps that we must take to unleash God’s power in us by being thankful and praising Him.

Acknowledge that God is in control

In order to unleash God’s power in us is to acknowledge that He is in control. But you may wonder, how can I acknowledge that God is in control when pain and suffering overwhelm me? If God is in control, why does He not do something to ease what I have? Why does He not help me solve this problem that keeps me up all night and jeopardizes my health? Why am I still unemployed, in need? It just seems that God has turned His back on me, on my problem.

Pray to God when we have problems

There are two things you can do when you have a problem. The first thing is to acknowledge that God is in control and praise to God by saying: “God, I do not understand what is happening, I have lost everything, all I see is darkness in my life, but, despite the adverse circumstances of life, I know that You know what you are doing and that You are in control.”

The second is: to pull your hair out in despair, having a spirit of criticism and murmuring. You will hurt yourself this ay. When you react this way, when you opt for this negative attitude, you are simply telling God that He does not know how to handle your life, and you will begin to walk down the path of ingratitude.

Nothing that happens escapes God’s knowledge, nothing escapes His will because God is the King of all the Earth. So says Psalm 47:7, “Sing praises to our King, sing praises! Because God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding.” God is the sovereign King of all the Earth. Everything that happens is allowed by the King. He is above all the problems that may exist in the universe.

Pray to God, He is not the perpetrator of the negative things

We need to understand something. God is not the perpetrator of the negative things that happen in your life. He is not the originator of the death and pain you might be experiencing right now. God loves us, He wants our well-being, He works for our happiness. You must understand the context of the world in which you live.

What is the origin of the suffering

You live in a sinful world. Our first parents had the opportunity to live eternally happy, but they decided to sell everything good and delicious that God had given them for their well-being by eating the forbidden fruit God had instructed them not to eat. God had told them that they would die the day they ate the forbidden fruit. We know the rest of the story.

Adam and Eve disobeyed, and sin entered this world and therefore eternal death. Today we receive the results, as an outcome of the carelessness our first parents displayed.

The effects of the sin

Reflecting on their disobedience and its effects on the world, we can say that the problems that overwhelm us today come from three sources.

  • The first of these sources is the sin of a world that is mortally wounded.
  • The second one, the sinful actions of people who are close to us, around us.
  • Thirdly, sin that exists in us, that leads us to make mistakes and sinful acts.

We are surrounded by sin and under its influence. God is in control, and He has the last word against sin in this world. He tells us: there is pain, death, and misery, but one day, not that far, I will give you eternal life.

We have this salvation in the midst of this world that is sinking into a sea of problems, complications, situations that make us feel sad and miserable. We have a God in happiness in the midst of adversity.

Pray to God when we have suffered injustice

Perhaps there is someone who has committed sinful acts against you, someone who has violated your rights, abused you sexually, physically, or emotionally. Perhaps you have been abused, slandered, or hurt. God can take all those destructive  actions and turn them into eternal blessing in your life.

Let us take, for example, Joseph and his brothers’ case in their biblical story. They took Joseph, threw him into a well, sold him as a slave, falsely accused him, and put him in a prison. From there, God took him out so that he could be the second most important person in the world’s largest empire at that time.

God used all the negative things that had happened in Joseph’s life so that he could grow and have emotional well-being, training him to be powerful in His cause (God). God can also take everything negative that has happened to you and use it to transform your life and help you become a giant for his Kingdom.

Bad things happens

You may have been fired from your job, or maybe you have received the news that you have a serious or terminal illness, maybe one of your family members has died, or you feel that problems overwhelm you, that you have no rest, that you cannot take it anymore. But God is above everything. God is there by your side to make all these things a blessing for you. God never leaves you.

Pray to God, He loves us

Romans 8:26 tells us that for those who love God, all things work for good. Regardless of what you have experienced in your life, God is more powerful than what has happened to you. God created you and tells you:

“I love you so much that if you leave what is happening to you to Me, if you surrender it totally to My will, if you believe that I am in control and you have a grateful attitude, I will take everything that is jeopardizing your life, what is making you unhappy, what saddens and worries you, and I am going to use it to bless your life. From all this, a blessing may arise for which you will feel grateful to God. Everything will be for your own good.”

God has a perfect plan for your life and mine

Perhaps we look at the circumstances that surround us and think that we have stood still forever, static in a painful place, stuck. We feel that the more we ask and cry out to God to help us, the more adverse circumstances around us seem to pile up. The highlight, in which that situation stops, cannot come until we acknowledge that God is in control and wants us to give Him control of everything.

He loves us, He wants us to be happy, God wants to bring blessings to our lives, blessings that in us will rekindle that love we have for Him, blessings that will make us feel grateful and praise Him in the midst of difficulties. God is that light in the midst of the dark world in which we live, He is our refuge in our difficulties. Let us come to God today with praise and thanks, and thank him for every blessing that He has given to our lives.

Even when we do not understand the good that will come from an unfavorable and adverse situation, let us show gratitude and praise. God expects this of us. It will be a blessing.

Forgiveness and its meaning in the Bible

by with No Comment Spiritual growth

We talk about forgiveness every day. But do you know what forgiveness really means? I have noticed that many of my patients do not look at forgiveness with the same criteria, hence my approach.

We all learn according to the education we have, the people we know, and the emotional intelligence we have developed. So when they explain to me how they are not able to forgive, most of the time, the problem is that their definition of forgiveness is wrong.

It is impossible to practice something that we do not know, hence I would like for us to learn more about what forgiveness means and the myths that surround it together.

What is forgiveness?

According to the Royal Spanish Academy, to forgive is the action of remitting an offense, debt, or fault, while the Greek word “Aphiemi” translated as forgiveness implies letting go or to release. Similarly, another Greek word used for forgiveness, Charizomai, means to give free and unconditional forgiveness.

To exempt or release from contracted obligations is a way of analyzing it further. Also, forgiveness is seen as a kind of gift or an act of kindness to be given to another person, which at the same time is positive for the giver.

Keep in mind that the action of forgiving is not a feeling, it is an act of will, a decision where you choose not to talk or think about the negative aspects you experienced. By giving it, you will be exempting the guilty party from responsibility.

For my part, I recommend that the action of forgiving be seen more as an added benefit to the person to whom it will be granted because the truth is that those of us who are able to forgive are the ones who benefit the most.

Forgiveness is more than a feeling

It is a liberating action, but one that is still conflicting. It is not petty to feel afraid to give relief to the one who hurt you. Thinking of forgiveness as a gift to someone else, while believing that this person does not deserve it, and actually wanting them to suffer for their mistakes, are all thoughts that make us human. They are common. They are also heavy and exhausting.

However, if you think that not forgiving is a form of punishment for that person, I must make it clear to you that you are wrong.

You may think that not forgiving is a way to take care of our own wounds, to proclaim that the suffering still exists, and to validate your own feelings. If the person is not able to admit or understand how they hurt you, it is natural for you to conclude that they do not deserve your forgiveness.

Nevertheless, the only thing you are doing by holding on to forgiveness is slowly hurting yourself.

What is not forgiveness?

In order to forgive, we need to go through with four promises, which are: not to think about the incident, not to relive it, not to talk about it, and not to allow it to damage your present.

You may think I am talking about forgetting, when in reality, I am not. Forgiving is not forgetting. Forgetting is a passive process that needs time, which is different from the act of forgiving, an active process.

So, when God says, “and I will remember your sin no more (Isa 43:25),” He is implying that He is not able to forget our faults, but in forgiving us, He chooses not to mention or take these into account. We must follow his example. Forgiveness also does not mean excusing others. It is the opposite.

The consequences of not forgiving

When you are not able to forgive, you will believe that you are in your right. It is more important for you to continue justifying your version of the truth and claiming some sort of recompense for the unfair treatment you received.

If you don’t grant your forgiveness, it will mean that the other person is the one who is wrong. It is an act of confirming and validating your pain.

I can’t help but mention how I have seen over and over again a thought process that by forgiving someone, you are “okay” in the present with what they did, leading to thoughts like, “Are my feelings no longer relevant?” “Will all be forgotten?” “Is it over?”

Forgiveness is not the same as saying that your suffering is meaningless, or that your pain has disappeared. Nor is it the same as saying that you have returned to being the same person you were before. Forgiveness is an act of liberation that we all need, first, for ourselves.

What does the Bible say about forgiving?

The Bible gives us hundreds of lessons about forgiveness and how to apply it in our daily lives, the main one being that forgiveness is shown as the spiritual deliverance necessary to continue.

For example, in Romans 8:1, it is said that the forgiveness we have in Christ implies the release of sinners from God’s just penalty and the complete dismissal of all charges against us. Also, in Ephesians 4:32, it is explained that the forgiveness God shows us for our sins is the same forgiveness we should show to others.

As the Holy Scriptures tell us, forgiveness is inexhaustible. Besides, rather than a source of weakness, it is a source of healing and power. Power and strength do not lie in denial or in pretending to be superior to pain, but rather in accepting who we are, how we feel, and acting in the best possible way to live by the counsel of our Lord.

Remember that forgiveness is an act of the will, and is not granted primarily because the person involved deserves it. Instead, look at forgiveness as a deliberate act of love, mercy, and grace.

5 Myths about forgiving

Resentment, bitterness, and even despair all come from living in a state of denial of forgiveness. But I understand how not understanding what it entails and the good it will do could lead you away from it. With this in mind, I would like to tell you about five very famous myths about forgiveness, and that you need to know that they are just that, myths.

1. Equals forgetting:

If you think that forgiveness is the same as forgetting the acts, you are wrong. As we have already read, it does not mean that what was done will be erased. Forgiving and forgetting is even seen as psychologically impossible.

2. It implies that the pain is gone:

Nor does forgive mean that your feelings are not there. You are not a robot, you have emotions that are valuable and that we should all respect. Forgiving is a step towards healing.

3. If you are forgiving, you have already surrendered in the search for justice:

Desiring justice is not a bad thing. So by forgiving, you are not admitting that you do not want it to happen. God’s timing is perfect, so sooner or later, He will make it happen.

4. It is an invitation to be hurt again:

This is one of the most problematic myths, because no, forgiveness is not an act of submission or weakness; it is the opposite.

5. If you forgive once, it’s done:

The process of forgiveness takes more than a few minutes, and more than one stage. Only you can decide which stage is the right one, and it will not be a short one.

Final words

The act of forgiving enhances our spirit and our mind. I invite you to continue reading my articles on how to forgive and how to understand the process. Would you like to tell me about your case? I will be glad to answer any questions you may have about this.

I don’t want to be a perfectionist -Please help me

by with No Comment Emotional IntelligenceSpiritual growth

There is a perfectionist everywhere. They disguise themselves behind a facade. With good performance, they pretend to be what they are not and have peculiar characteristics.

Are you a perfectionist? Do you think that everything you do is flawed and can be improved, even at the expense of your health and your money? A perfectionist is a person who refuses to accept things as they are and is always looking for mistakes to fix and reach perfection.

It is not bad to want to improve an attitude or to want to do your job in a better way, but this type of personality can be dangerous if you do not know how to control it. For a perfectionist, anything less than magnificent is unacceptable. But the perfect thing does not exist, nothing and nobody is perfect. And because of this, this type of person tends to feel disappointed and frustrated when they find that they cannot do more to improve themselves or what is around them.

Statistics about being a perfectionist

Statistics on this matter say that more than 80 percent of the population recognizes being led by perfectionism in certain areas of their lives. Many people say: I like to do things right, perfectly, I and am a perfectionist. And they say this without understanding the consequences this type of personality can have.

There are differences between the demands of the perfectionist and the desire for excellence. The perfectionist says: the best of me is not enough, the one who wants excellence says: I am pleased with the best of me. So, the perfectionist says: I cannot be happy if it is not perfect, excellence says: I will be happy with the best of me; the perfectionist says it is painful to fail, and the one who wants excellence says: failure is part of life.

Types of perfectionists

There are two types of perfectionists: the pathological perfectionist and the one I call a “Christian perfectionist,” who tries to save himself/herself even when separated from God. In the Bible, we can find the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who had traits of perfectionism.

From the evidence presented by the biblical text, I cannot determine whether Ananias and Sapphira had pathological perfectionism, but I am sure they were Christian perfectionists who tried to be perfect by their means. They had a distorted image of God, they perceived Him as a perfectionist. They thought that God does not accept anything other than perfection.

From a perfectionist’s point of view, we have to at least pretend that we are good before God. If you do not do good before God, He will punish you: “Get off the tree or God will punish you,” “don’t ride a bicycle because God will punish you” … and many other misperceptions of that type. They have an image of a God as a perfectionist, and He will punish us for what we do wrong.

In Ananias and Sapphira’s story, it is shown how they had a distorted image of the members of the church. They were afraid that the brothers and sisters in the church would notice their inability to live up to them and thought they would not be accepted if they were recognized as being below the Barnabas family and their commitment to God. They showed false fidelity to enjoy prestige among the other members of the church, and they did not mind trying to deceive the Holy Spirit.

Perfectionist families

Those Christian perfectionists like Ananias do what they have to do in the church to maintain their image as good Christians. Nowadays, the families of church members who are like Ananias have no room for error because they live with the illusion of perfectionism.

If the family is having any kind of problem, such as the single daughter getting pregnant or if there are marriage problems at home, they pretend everything is fine, perfect, with problems. If the pastor asks them, “how is everything?” They answer: “Oh, pastor, everything is fine here, perfect.”

We could define the profile of the Christian perfectionist through the following characteristics: just like Ananias, perfectionists are never satisfied, they are critical of other people, they set impossible goals for themselves, they value themselves for what they do and what they have, instead of valuing themselves for their identity in Christ. They do not accept praise or criticism because they are never satisfied with what they have achieved.

Why is too dangerous to be a perfectionist?

When talking about the pathological perfectionist’s profile, we can say that he/she lives in continuous dissatisfaction despite doing everything well. He/she lives in tension and concern since he/she feels judged and criticized both personally and by others, which prevents him/her from achieving the happiness he/she is looking for. It can end in depression, anxiety, or suicide.

The pathological perfectionist’s development starts in childhood, at home because he/she never received love or acceptance from his/her parents. It was demanded that they have high performance in exchange for love and acceptance, and, when they reach adulthood, the programming they have in their minds is to be perfect or to appear to be perfect to be accepted and avoid failure.

Pathological perfectionists are afraid of failure. They associate failure with a lack of personal worth and constantly think that if they fail at something, they are worthless. By being too focused on trying to avoid making mistakes, they miss opportunities to grow and learn. Furthermore, they are afraid of others disapproving of them.

They believe that if they let others see their flaws or failures, they will be rejected. Trying to be perfect is a way to protect themselves from criticism, rejection, or disapproval of others. They are also characterized by having a very radical way of thinking. They go from one extreme to the other without considering the middle ground. If they do not do things perfectly, they think they are useless or feel incapable of moving forward.

How can you know if you are a pathological perfectionist?

You can ask yourself the following questions to evaluate yourself. Answer “Yes” if the answer is generally affirmative in your life and “No” if it is not generally true in your life (you may want to ask a close family member or a friend to confirm your answers, to make sure you are being realistic in your self-evaluation).

  1. I often think that I should have done things better than I did.
  2. I tend to put things aside if I do not have the time to do them perfectly.
  3. Fear to fail e when I work on an important project.
  4. I try hard to impress others with my best qualities or achievements.
  5. I always strive to stay in control of my emotions.
  6. My self-esteem drops if I repeat a mistake.
  7. I am often disappointed in the quality of others’ work.
  8. Bad feelings when things do not go as planned
  9. I feel like my standards should not be that high.
  10. I am constantly trying to improve.
  11. Fear that people will think badly of me if I fail.
  12. I am unhappy if everything I do is considered normal.
  13. My home and office must always be impeccable.
  14. I feel inferior to others who are smarter, more attractive, or more successful than me.
  15. I have to look flawless whenever I am in public.

If you answered “Yes” to five or more of the statements above, this suggests a significant perfectionism problem (This is a screening test, but for an accurate diagnosis of depression or other mental disorders, in-person consultation with a trained health professional is in order). But I have wonderful news for you: perfectionists can receive healing!

Ananias and Sapphira

Ananias and Sapphira were under the pressure of perfectionism, the prison that chains all those who want to be perfect despite being separated from God. The life of deception that Ananias and Sapphira lived led them to die ashamed in front of their congregation. The Ananias of today has the opportunity to recognize their perfectionist condition and save their souls.

If you are an Ananias, you must understand that perfectionism is something illusory and impossible. It is due to the sinful nature we all carry. If you do not get out of that prison today, you will have a life full of anxiety, depression, unhappiness, and in the end, eternal perdition for trying to live apart from Jesus.

How can you receive healing and be free from perfectionism? I

will give you seven tips below that will be of great help:

  1. Accept the Grace of God, you do not have to fear losing God’s love, nor measure yourself while being compared to others because the Grace of God reaches you.
  2. You do not need to try to impress God. He loves you and wants to transform you in His image.
  3. Trust that God will meet your needs
  4. Let yourself be filled by the Holy Spirit. This way you will enjoy its fruits: joy, peace, patience, fidelity, self-control, and benevolence.
  5. Whatever you do, do it in the name of the Lord.
  6. Hand God your demands to do things your way.
  7. Accept that it is okay to fail, and when you fall, get up and move on.

My dear friends that read these lines, it is time to accept that you can fail in your work. So, you can fall, and make mistakes, but, in the name of God, you can move on. Accept that you are unique, and you should not compare yourself to others. God made you as you are and, in Him, you can do everything.

There is no victory without sacrifice -Don’t lie to yourself

by with No Comment Spiritual growth

What is the secret to achieving the most important thing in my life? How can I achieve my dreams and aspirations? Have you ever asked yourself those questions? Each of us has personal priorities in life, and based on them we have dreams and aspirations.

For example, I have three things I want to achieve. Two of them are long-term aspirations and one of them is a short-term one. A long-term one is that I want to know God more deeply. The second is that I want to be a better husband and father. And the third was something in the shorter term: I wanted to defend my dissertation within three months so that I can be more prepared and serve my church in a better way, for which I thank God that I have already achieved it.

Although I strongly desire to achieve these dreams, many times, I feel that my life is stuck and does not move forward. I feel like I am staying in the same place.

I remember when I lived in Philadelphia and New Jersey when there were heavy snowfalls it was very easy for cars to slide on the ice. If you feel like you are skidding on ice in your life, if you feel like you are getting stuck in the same problem and you do not know how to get out of the hole you have fallen into, this message is for you.

There is no victory without sacrifice

This message is for the person who wants to lose a few pounds but cannot stop eating unhealthy food. It is for the person who wants to live more comfortably but does not want to save money. Or for the athlete or musician who wants to develop his/her talent but does not want to spend time developing it.

It is also a message for the student who wants to get better grades but does not want to take the time to study. Or for parents who want to raise their children well but do not want to take the time to share with them and teach the. It is for the Christian who wants to achieve Eternal Life but does not want to leave the old life. So, I ask you then, what is the biggest goal you want to achieve in your life?

 A personal experience that shows there is no victory without sacrifice

Three years ago, I injured my Achilles tendon when playing softball with some of the young people of the church. Since then, I have abandoned all sports practice and began to gain some weight. That was until one day I said, “This is it, no more, I am going to exercise, and I am going to learn a new sport.” One day, Frank BernarBernard said to me, “I am going to teach you how to play tennis.” I started playing at 5:30 A.M., three to four times a week.

I started to see my dream coming true when I realized that I was losing five, ten, to fifteen pounds, and even more weight. There is no greater satisfaction than getting out of the hole where you are stuck and achieving the goal you have set for yourself. I had to sacrifice hours of sleep to get up early and go play tennis, and to sacrifice pain after the game because I understood that there is no victory without sacrifice.

Society and the media proclaim another motto: victory is obtained without much effort, do not try too hard. If you want to become a millionaire, play the lottery, if you want to have a family, just bring the money home.

High schools tell boys and girls that abstinence is not necessary. Nothing will happen to you if you do not abstain, you can drink a sip of alcohol, and nothing bad will happen to you. But, the law of sacrifice says: to achieve something important, you must let go of things that are not and you must pay the price.

Bible shows there is no victory without sacrifice

The book of Acts, chapter 8, speaks of two types of church members, the Simon-like and the disciples. We can distinguish Simon-like members by these characteristics:

  • They want to obtain salvation without sacrifice, they want to buy power and anointing of the Holy Spirit without paying the price, but they do not understand that there is no victory without sacrifice.
  • They want to obtain what others have but without much sacrifice.
  • Thus, they think: “I have money, if you sell it to me I will buy it.”
  • The hearts of the Simon-like members are not right before God, they appear to be one thing but in their minds, they are another.
  • They appear as faithful devotees, but in their minds, there are other priorities and God is in second place. Those priorities are their idols. They live in bitterness and have evil in their hearts.
  • They live in cognitive dissonance and have a priority in their life, but other things take that priority’s place. This causes stress, bitterness, and evil.
  • The Simon-like members of today prefer the easiest things rather than sacrifice.

Other characteristics of Simon-like members

  • They want the crown of life but they settle for earthly crowns because they are cheaper.
  • They want the power of God but they settle for the power that the ecclesiastical or academic office gives.
  • So, they want to overcome bad habits and problems with their temper, but they do not want to sacrifice the delight that produces the same thing they want to overcome.
  • They do not understand that there is no victory without sacrifice.
  • Besides, they believe that pleasures can be enjoyed while fighting for victory.
  • They cannot have both, they do not sacrifice anything to save their families.
  • They do not sacrifice anything to improve their health.
  • And, they do not sacrifice anything to beat pornography. Lot’s wife, Saul, and Judas are examples of these cases.

No victory without sacrifice

Regarding the disciples, they say: without sacrifice. Such is the case of the rich young man, who left because he could not sacrifice his love for money. The disciples asked Jesus, “what will we get?” (Mat. 19:27) One hundred times and Eternal Life; disciples sacrifice time; disciples sacrifice their pride and carnal desires; they sacrifice their lives (Romans 12:2).

They sacrifice their persona agenda; everything is sacrificed because there is nothing better than the victory that will be obtained; they are faithful until death because they will obtain the crown of life; they are convinced that no sacrifice they can make can be equated with the victory they will obtain; God has prepared for the faithful “things that the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard.” We must consider that the disciples sacrificed everything. Let’s see the case of each disciple:

Matthew

He suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia and died from a sword wound.

Mark

He died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he died

Luke

He was hanged in Greece because of his tremendous preaching to the lost.

John

He faced martyrdom when he was put in a huge pot of boiling oil during the wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously freed from death. John was sentenced to live on the prison island of Patmos.

Peter

He was crucified upside down on an X-shaped cross. According to church tradition, this happened because he told his torturers that he felt unworthy of dying in the same way Jesus Christ had died.

James

The leader of the church in Jerusalem was pushed and fell 100 meters from the southeast pinnacle of the temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When his enemies discovered that he survived the fall, they beat him to death.

This was the same pinnacle where Jesus was brought by Satan to tempt Him.

James the Great

Son of Zebedee, he was a fisherman when Jesus called him to a life of ministry and preaching. James was beheaded in Jerusalem because he was an influential Christian in the early church.

The Roman officer who watched over James observed in amazement how James defended his faith in Jesus during his trial. Later, this officer walked along with James to the place of execution. Shocked by James’ conviction, this Roman soldier declared his new faith in Christ before the judge and he knelt right beside James to accept beheading as a punishment for now being a Christian.

Bartholomew

Also known as Nathanael, he was a missionary in Asia. He was the crier of our Lord Jesus Christ in modern Turkey. Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia, where he was skinned to death by a whip.

Andrew

He was crucified on an X-shaped cross in Patras, Greece after being severely flogged by seven soldiers who tied his body to the cross with ropes to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was taken to the cross, Andrew greeted them with these words: “For a long time I have wished and waited for this happy moment.”

The cross unequivocally evokes the body of Christ hanging on it. Andrew continued preaching to his executioners for two days until he died.

Thomas

He was pierced by a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the Church of Christ in that region.

Judas

He was shot to death with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

Matthias

The apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot was stoned and then beheaded.

Paul

He was tortured and then beheaded by the evil emperor Nero in Rome in 67.

Let us analyze then, why did the disciples sacrifice so much for the final victory? Simply because the dream they had was superior to all the distractions and obstacles they had to sacrifice. These disciples transformed the known world of that time, as they set out to live extraordinary lives, sacrificing everything to obtain the crown of Eternal Life. Their names have been marked in the history of humanity.

Examples of today

It tells the story of Louis Zamperini who, at 15 years old, started running. He was a two-time NCAA champion that represented the United States at the 1936 Olympics. He said: “All I want to say to you, young man/woman, is that you will achieve nothing unless you commit to achieving a goal.

You must look within yourself and see if you want to make that sacrifice. Your dreams will not always come true, but you will never know if you do not try. Whatever it is, you will always discover a lot of courage on your way because you will find problems, or as I call them, challenges.

The first big challenge in my life was when I was a child when transitioning from a wasted teenager to an accomplished athlete. The other challenge was surviving for 47 days after my plane crashed and then surviving in the Japanese concentration camp. The best way to confront challenges is to be prepared for them. All athletes want to win, but when being on a boat, or in war, you have to win. Luckily and wisely, I was prepared, and I won”.

Live thinking: No victory without sacrifice

Can you imagine how extraordinary your life would be if you decide to live by the motto: “there is no victory without sacrifice”?

Can you imagine what would happen with your life, your home, and your church , if from now on, you begin sacrificing all the things that prevent you from achieving victory over something important in your life?

I invite you to try three things this week: write down the victory you want to achieve, the distractions that are preventing you from achieving that victory, and then sacrifice those distractions so that you can obtain it.

Be a Champion (3 lessons to win in life)

by with No Comment Spiritual growth
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]No one wants to be a loser in life. We all want to win. We want to be a champion.

As I was getting ready to talk to you, the question that came to my mind was this: What simple advice can I give my friends so that they can become champions of God? What do you need to do to make a difference? What do you need to do to achieve your dreams?

Every person who has accomplished great things for God began by developing the mind of a giant as a child. If you want to be a giant, you must first develop a giant’s mind. When God needed someone to save His future nation from starvation, He chose Joseph when he was still a child. Or when God needed a leader to bring his children out of Egypt, He chose Moses, the boy. When God needed a king to shepherd his nation, He chose young David.

When God needed a king to bring revival, He chose Josiah when he was still eight years old. You do not have to wait until you finish college to become a giant of God. If you want to be a giant of God tomorrow, you have to start today so that when tomorrow comes, you are ready to serve God powerfully.

The character you are building today is the foundation of your success tomorrow. Be a champion. The Biblical story of King Josiah gives us three lessons to become giants of God.

The three lessons that this child king wants to give you today are: Focus on developing yourself, focus on small victories, and focus on living for God.

Concentrate on your personal development to be a champion

Research shows that the way people feel about themselves has a huge effect on their success. If you want to be a giant of God, you first need to develop a giant’s mind. If your mind is not ready to reach the top of the mountain, you are never going to get there. A Christian who has a negative image of himself/herself, who considers themselves to have little value, who is not important, who has low self-esteem, will never be able to understand the place and value that Christ gives him/her as a child of God.

The Bible is full of incredible promises for the children of God. But the problem is that we do not believe in those promises because we do not think of ourselves as worthy of them.

If you want to be a champion…

My friend, if you want to be a champion, you need to understand that your identity is not in Hollywood, or what society calls “normal” in this world. Your Creator is the One who gives you your identity. Develop yourself around the plan that your Creator has for you, and not around what the media says about you as a person.

The enemy wants you to believe the lies that have chained this world into misery. Satan wants you to believe that you are not good enough, that you are not perfect enough, that you are not intelligent, that you are too fat, or too skinny. If you see yourself through your enemy’s eyes, you cannot be a champion of God.

But, if you look at yourself through God’s eyes, you will realize that He has created you to be a champion in this world, to be the head and not the tail. You will be your worst enemy if you do not develop yourself. Your negative thoughts will rise as walls in your life, and they will not let you be a champion.

Josiah believed in God’s plan and not in the negative message that Satan was showing him. Satan may be telling you: you are too young to be a king, you do not have the experience or the talent to lead a nation, your country will not believe in you, you have nothing to offer your country, and you are not good for this position. But King Josiah set out in his heart to be a champion of God by believing what God said about him and not what Satan said.

Focus on celebrating small victories to be a champion tomorrow

The second piece of advice is to focus on the little things. Anyone who has tried to sleep with a mosquito in the room knows the impact that something small can have. Celebrate small victories. Great victories are nothing more than the accumulation of many small victories.

The theory of “small victories” increases your motivation in life, productivity, and satisfaction with what you do. Small victories are the prelude to great victories. No one reaches the top without first walking through the valley. Develop a winner mentality by celebrating small victories every day.

You cannot get a college degree if you do not first win the battle of doing your homework and studying every day. Besides, you cannot lose weight if you do not first celebrate the small victories of eating right and exercising every day. You will not be able to relate well to other people tomorrow if you do not first celebrate the victory of treating your parents with compassion and love.

Besides, you cannot win the victory of avoiding having sex before marriage if you do not first win the daily battle in purity. You will not be able to win the victory of living eternally with God if you do not first celebrate the small daily victories of walking every day with Jesus.

Josiah and the small victories

Josiah understood this principle in his life and focused on making daily progress through small victories with significant habits. His character was built on his daily life. He developed the habit of seeking God daily in his life, praying and meditating on God even when no one from his home or family did.

Those little victories in his life served as a trampoline for all the other victories he achieved in his life. When he was 16 years old, he decided to tear down all the altars to Baal and walk in David’s ways. When he was 24 years old, he called God’s people to revival by reading the book of the law when it was found. All of this was possible because he began to celebrate small daily victories in his spiritual life from an early age.

The Olympic swimmer

Michael Phelps is a living example of winning small victories. Phelps is the Olympic swimmer who has won the most medals in swimming in the history of the sport. There are many reasons for Phelps to be successful as a swimmer. He has big hands, a powerful torso, short legs, and trains like no one else do. But Phelps had a problem, he was nervous at the time of the competition.

His coach helped him overcome this problem by helping him celebrate small victories every day. He gets up early, eats his routine breakfast, starts his warm-up on time, and celebrates small victories every day. He was not focused on the great Olympic victory, but on the small victories of his daily life that would lead him to the great victory. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, celebrating small victories was greatly rewarded.

When Phelps went into the water, his glasses broke and water began to enter his eyes. There was nothing he could do. The problem worsened and by the time he reached the finish line, he was practically blind. He could not see the line that marked the bottom of the pool or the mark that announced that he was near the end of the pool.

Phelps did not let panic control him

He had envisioned this same scenario long before in Michigan. When his coach told him to swim in a dark pool to prepare him for this great competition. As Phelps got to the final stretch, the crowd was screaming, but Phelps did not know why they were screaming, was he winning or losing?

He started to swim faster without knowing what was happening. When he reached the end, he took off his glasses and looked at the scoreboard, next to his name it said WR. Michael Phelps had broken the world swimming record despite the obstacle he had! The small victories he had celebrated in his daily life had prepared him to be a champion.

Focus on God

My third piece of advice is: to focus on God to be a champion. If you want to be a giant of God, He needs to be the center of your life. To understand this, God is the source of wisdom, understanding, and all pleasure. Satan does not want you to understand. He tries to make you think that he is the source of all success in this world.

Satan will offer you material possessions as if they were the solution to your problems. He will offer you sex and drugs as a source of pleasure. Satan will offer you dishonesty as a way to reach the top. But in the end, death is the result because the wages of sin are death.

Focus on God, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Thus, King Josiah was focused on living for God. God became the first thing in his life, the first thing in his family and nation. And great blessings followed him like a giant of God. Josiah was focused on serving God, and he gave us an example of true zeal for Him. Josiah did what was right in God’s eyes and did not turn left or right because his mind was focused on God.

The only One who can offer you eternal life

My friend, I challenge you to focus on living for God because. At the end of the road, He is the only One who can offer you eternal life. He is the only One who can bring meaning to your life. A life without God is a life without a future. God is the only One who remains when everything else is lost.

So, live for God as a giant and the things that no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no human mind has conceived. Those are the things that God has prepared for those who are His champions.

Share with me what d you do every day to be a champion in your life. Your comments will bless many people today.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

How to manage your anxiety in the pandemic (part2)

by with No Comment Emotional IntelligenceSpiritual growth

Let’s continue developing the topic of how to manage anxiety during the pandemic. If you haven’t read our previous post, please take a moment to read it. This post is a continuation of it. The line that divides the destructive and constructive levels of anxiety is very fine and often, it is hard to identify it, and this is when you have problems. Let me show you some examples:

Destructive anxiety paralyzes, the constructive anxiety motivates. The destructive one reduces your creativity, the constructive one increases it. The destructive one produces an anxious restlessness, the constructive one produces a calm approach. One tries to control the future and the other one tries to improve it. One fears the worst, and the other one hopes for the best. One distracts the mind from what is important, and the other one directs the mind to what is important.

It is not difficult to understand that, in the case of the disciples with Jesus before the storm on the lake, they manifested destructive anxiety by experiencing anxious restlessness, thinking that they would perish. On the other hand, Jesus manifested constructive anxiety.

It would be good to ask ourselves, what message did the disciples’ anxiety try to give them in the middle of the storm? Maybe they needed to understand their need to depend more on Jesus and less on their strength. Their anxieties showed that even though they were close to Jesus, they did not trust Him to solve their crisis.

We must manage anxiety to be healthy

So, we can conclude by saying that anxiety itself is not a sin because it is a natural reaction to stress. Being anxious becomes a sin when it stops being constructive and becomes destructive, and you start to get desperate, using your human skills to deal with your stress.

That is why Jesus, in Matthew 6:25, said to His disciples: “be anxious for nothing.” As Christians, we are called not to live in a state of anxiety and simply to see anxiety as a messenger who wants to help us see what is important in our lives.

I must also clarify that many people suffer from anxiety disorders as a product of traumatic experiences that they have had in their lives, and for them, anxiety is a pathological problem. In these cases, saying that this person is sinning because they are living in a state of general anxiety is not correct.

Five tips to manage anxiety during a pandemic

For these people, trying to manage the cognitive part of their mind is not an easy thing to do, and they need therapy and often even medication. I want to leave you with five tips to manage anxiety in the pandemic.

See your anxiety as a messenger, not as your enemy

Your anxiety is your natural reaction to stress. Do not kill the messenger. When facing stress in life, anxiety is that messenger that tells you what is important to you. Try to communicate your needs so that you can meet t them.

For example, perhaps in the pandemic, you feel anxious and the message your anxiety is giving you is that you should trust God more and depend less on your strength. Or, perhaps the source of that anxiety is an emotional trauma that you have not yet resolved in your life, and you need to pay attention to it.

Develop a relationship with God and practice Christian meditation

God has a promise for every stressful situation you may be experiencing in your life. He also tells you that no stress has overtaken you that you could not bear. Connect with God and take time to meditate upon His promises.

Eliminate negative inner voices

What you say to yourself determines your reality and how you will live in that reality. Save your mind from toxic thoughts, so you can manage your anxiety more effectively. Thoughts are like seeds that we sow in the garden of the mind. Set your mind on everything that glorifies God.

Practice relaxation exercises to reduce your anxiety

One of those exercises is diaphragmatic breathing. You can do between 5 and 10 breaths and abdominal exhalations, slowly and deeply from the diaphragm. Take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth, and focus on completely emptying your lungs before taking another breath. Another exercise you can do to manage your anxiety is to walk at least 30-45 minutes every day.

Get enough sleep

Set a stable schedule to go to bed and wake up. If for some exceptional reason (for example, on the weekend) you stay up longer than expected, do not get up too late the next day. This way, even if you are sleepy during that day, you will not alter the sleep cycle to which your body is used, and you will be able to function normally for the rest of the week.

Today, I invite you to trust in a powerful God who takes care of you and if He is allowing you to go through this pandemic, He has everything under control and this crisis will come to an end someday in the not-too-distant future. It is time for you to ask yourself what your anxiety is revealing about what is important in your life.

How to manage your anxiety in the pandemic

by with No Comment Emotional IntelligenceSpiritual growth
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Let see the importance to manage your anxiety. One morning, Death was walking towards a city and a man asked:

“What are you going to do?”

“I am going to kill 100 people,” Death replied.

“That is horrible!” the man said.

“That’s the way it is,” said Death. “That is what I do.”

The man hurried to warn everyone he could about Death’s plan.

As evening fell, he met Death again.

“You told me you were going to take 100 people with you,” the man said. “Why did 1,000 die?”

“I kept my word,” Death replied. “I only killed 100 people. Anxiety killed the other 900.”

The pandemic we face today has led some people to develop a state of anxiety, which can be very dangerous for their physical, spiritual, and emotional health.

Anxiety is the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 40 million adults, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. This is equivalent to 18 percent of the population of this country. But, the saddest part of this matter is that only a third of those who struggle with anxiety receive treatment. In our next posts, I want to talk to you about this topic, which is very important at the moment we are currently living in.

You must manage your anxiety

In our last blog, we began to study Jesus’ experience with His disciples when He gave them the order to cross to the other shore and a great storm arose (Mark 4: 35-40). The disciples thought they were going to perish and called their Master, saying: Master, aren’t you worried that we are going to perish? But, we see a Jesus who was sleeping in the middle of the storm while His disciples were anxious because they feared being swallowed by the dark waves of the storm. Jesus was calm because His Heavenly Father was in control of everything.

Is it a sin to have anxiety? Did Jesus’ disciples sin by being anxious in the midst of the storm? It is a very complex question. Let’s try to figure it out by asking ourselves what anxiety is.

Anxiety is part of the human body’s natural response system to any true or false threat we experience. When your mind perceives that it is in danger, it sends a series of signals to your body and as a result, there is a response to that stress.

Stress is the response to an external threat when you experience a crisis, a task you have to finish, or the threat of an uncertain future. Anxiety is the reaction to the stress you are experiencing. It has an internal origin.

Manage your anxiety is not always necessary

Low levels of anxiety manifested by the body are normally found at one end of the spectrum and can present themselves as low levels of fear, apprehension, mild sensations of muscle pressure, sweating, shortness of breath, or perhaps doubt about the ability to complete a task. These symptoms of normal anxiety levels do not interfere with your daily functioning.

On the contrary, these normal levels of anxiety help us to function more effectively since they produce greater motivation and attention to the stress we have in advance. Experts like Jennifer Fee draw their attention to seeing anxiety as a messenger. She says anxiety is that messenger that tells you what is important to you. Try to communicate with your needs, so that you can meet them correctly. If you kill the messenger, you will not receive the message.

When you don’t see anxiety as a messenger, it can reach clinical levels. Clinical or destructive levels of anxiety are at the other end of the spectrum, and they increase enough to rapidly decrease your performance and cause a physical and emotional decline. Anxiety disorders are characterized by a severe and persistent worry that is disproportional to the situation being experienced.

These symptoms cause anguish, they affect your daily functioning, and they occur for a significant period of time. In our next post, we will continue talking about this important topic. Come back! Please share your comment about how you manage your anxiety, and feel free to ask any questions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Emotions in the midst of the pandemic crisis

by with One Comment Emotional IntelligenceSpiritual growth
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Gospel of Mark in chapter 4: 35-40 presents a story similar to the one we are all experiencing today. The verse begins telling the story in this way, “That day, when the night came.” Night comes to all of us at some point in life. That night comes after a day when peace and tranquility clear all worries that would later change in our world. No doubt that the night has come into our lives.

How did the night come to your life? The night may have come in the form of a crisis. There are different types of crisis. Situational crisis or developmental crisis. Situational crises are problems and conflicts that come to life in unexpected ways. Developmental crises are crises that we experience as a result of emotional development, family, or personal cycles that we are experiencing through the different stages of our life.

Now, the story takes a very attractive color because even though the night came for Jesus and His disciples, Jesus invites them to go to the other shore of the lake. There are things that Jesus does that do not make sense to the human being. Every time Jesus does something that doesn’t make sense, it’s because he wants to teach us a lesson. The journey on the Lake of Galilee was very uncertain due to many conditions.

The position of the lake could raise storms in unexpected ways. They did not have the navigation instruments that exist today. Their experience as fishermen made the difference. But despite the disadvantages that they had before the night that had come into their lives, Jesus invites them to “go to the other shore of the lake.”

Show faith in times of crisis

Despite the pandemic that has come on the cold night of our lives, Jesus invites us to go to the other shore. This expression, “going to the other shore” is closely connected with the experience of the people of Israel when they were also challenged to “go to the other shore” on their journey to the earthly Canaan. Today, in our journey towards the Heavenly Canaan, God invites us to go to the other shore. The shore of liberation, final victory. The shore of the Heavenly Canaan.

It is interesting to note that despite the beautiful invitation that Jesus makes to his disciples to go to the other shore, the storm arrives. And you have the right to wonder if I am obeying the command of Jesus to go to the other shore. How is it possible for a storm to rise on Jesus’ command? And not only that, with Jesus walking at our side. These questions are very valid.

How to show faith

The truth is that accepting the invitation to be a disciple of Jesus and moving to the other shore does not make us immune to experiencing storms on our journey.

Furthermore, Jesus tells us that it is normal for storms to come into our lives as we travel through the troubled waters to the other shore. “In the world, you will have afflictions,” says Jesus. And isn’t that what we are experiencing today? We are distressed by the storm that has risen in our lives and threatens to destroy us.

This storm has come in the form of COVID-19, a deadly virus that has destroyed cities, systems, and today threatens to sink our lives. A virus that has the most powerful country in the world paralyzed without knowing how to behave in the face of the crisis. We have never experienced a crisis like this one. And the problem is not simply the storm, but the uncertainty that the coronavirus brings.

The coronavirus crisis

Now, how can we live in the midst of the coronavirus storm? If we go to the biblical text, we see the two attitudes that we can take. We see the disciples anxious and desperate because they are afraid that they will lose their lives. And on the other hand, we see Jesus sleeping in the middle of the storm. How is it possible that you can have two such different reactions in the midst of this experience?

It all lies in the way you interpret the storm or crisis that comes into your life. Your thoughts define how you are going to interpret your reality, your crisis. And if we dig a little deeper into this concept, we will find that our thoughts define our emotions and behaviors. Epictetus said: “We are altered not by events, but by the way we interpret events.” In other words, the way I interpret the storm that I am experiencing is going to influence how I am going to feel and how I am going to behave before it.

Let’s go back to the boat, where Jesus and his disciples are facing the storm that came to them in their dark night. In the midst of the storm, the thoughts that the disciples have been thoughts of danger, uncertainty, threat, and death. Those thoughts produce emotions that are not difficult to decipher. Emotions such as fear and anguish at the threat of the storm. And that is why they behave anxiously and try to find solutions to the problem on their own, apart from Jesus.

How did Jesus face the crisis?

Now, let’s analyze the reaction of Jesus, who is in the same boat and experiences the same storm that the disciples are experiencing. What are Jesus’ thoughts about the storm? “My Heavenly Father is in control of my life. I have nothing to fear. “Those thoughts produced emotions of serenity, peace and security. And his behavior was obvious then, in the middle of the storm, Jesus was sleeping.”

Tell me, who can sleep in the middle of the storm? So what can we say made the difference between the disciples’ emotions and behavior and the fact that Jesus was sleeping? The difference was not made by the storm because both groups experienced the same storm. The difference was in the way they interpreted the storm. The disciples interpreted it as a threat to their lives. And Jesus interpreted it as an opportunity to trust more in his Heavenly Father, who cared for His life.

I ask you, in the midst of the night that has come to your being, how do you interpret the COVID-19 storm? Because the thoughts you have about this phenomenon will make the difference between whether you will be anxious and desperate or in peace and tranquility as Jesus was in His storm.

Five step to face the crisis

I want to leave you with five tips. These tips are in the way Paul decided to interpret the storms that came on his dark nights. He says in Philippians 4: 8: “For the rest, brethren, all that is true, all that is honest, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is kind, all that is of good name; if there is any virtue, if something worthy of praise, think of this.”

Label the emotion.

The emotion you are experiencing, such as sadness, anguish, pain, give it a name.

Identify the thoughts that lead you to experience those negative or positive emotions

Ask yourself, do you think about what is honest, fair, pure, kind, or of good name? You cannot change until you are aware of the toxic thought that is leading you to experience the emotion and behavior that you have.

Focus on changing your thoughts

In other words, change your thinking because your thoughts are what define your emotions. Instead of thinking about the lies that Satan has led you to think about, think about the eternal truths we have in God’s promises. First, analyze what the storm, crisis, or problem is that leads you to experience the thought you have in your mind.

Understand that you can never change the storms or crises that come to your life. You can only change the ways you interpret those experiences so that you can experience different emotions. Your biggest problem lies in wanting to control what only God can control. That is the source of the greatest stress you experience in your life.

Thank God for what He has given you

Instead of complaining about what you have lost in the midst of the storm, decide to trust what you have. Make a list of all the things that God has given you. You will discover that you always have more things to be thankful for compared to things you think you don’t have.

Cast all your anxiety on God because He cares for you

The end of the story about the storm you experience today will be defined by how you decide to interpret your storm. The disciples thought of death and pain. Jesus thought of peace and security because His Father was at His side. In the end, Jesus rises and calms the storm. Today, you can get up like Jesus and calm the storm because your God is at your side as a powerful giant and nothing can harm you without His permission.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Living in times of the deadly coronavirus pandemic

by with No Comment Emotional IntelligenceSpiritual growth

Night has come into our lives with the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic. Our whole world has changed. Empty streets, supermarkets without essential products. Graduations canceled were, and schools closed. Churches have closed their doors and moved to a digital service. A call for isolation has been made by government authority.

There are rumors in many states of activating the National Guard. In my 50 years of life, I have never experienced a crisis like the one we are experiencing today. What does tomorrow have in store for us? Will the dawn return before the darkness continues to overwhelm our being?

In the face of so much gloom, our natural reaction is to activate our brain’s defense system against fear and the prevailing insecurity. Anxiety (a feeling of concern or uneasiness), fear, uncertainty, anger, and sadness are common feelings that we sometimes experience when facing a crisis. They are normal responses to the crisis and stresses we are experiencing.

Questions we must ask ourselves are, how does the Christian live in a crisis that threatens our existence? How do we survive this threat of annihilation by such a devastating virus? How will the human story end? In this article, we are going to discover by the grace of God how to live in the coronavirus pandemic.

God is in control in the coronavirus pandemic

The secret to surviving the threat of the coronavirus is to recognize that God is in control. How can I recognize that God is in control when pain and suffering overwhelm my being? If God is in control, why doesn’t He do something to quell the fury of the coronavirus pandemic? It just seems that God has turned His back on this problem. These could be some of the questions that you may have in your hearts.

There are two attitudes you can take when you have problems: The first is to recognize that God is in control and praise God saying: “God, I do not understand what is happening, I have lost everything, I see everything dark in my life, but despite these adverse circumstances that the coronavirus has brought, I know that you know what to do, and you are in control.”

Avoid a bad attitude in front of the coronavirus pandemic

The second attitude you can take is to pull your hair out by developing a toxic spirit. When you opt for this negative attitude, you are simply saying to God: “You don’t know how to manage my life” and you begin to walk down a path that cements a destiny of failures and mental illness. The Bible states: “For God is the king of all the earth …” Ps. 47: 7. Thus, we see that God is the Sovereign King of the entire earth, everything that happens is allowed by the King. He is still the God of the Universe amid the coronavirus pandemic.

God is not the originator of the coronavirus pandemic, God is not the originator of death, or o the pain, you may be experiencing right now. You must understand the context of the world in which you live. You live in a world of sinfulness.

The origin of the evil

Our first parents had the opportunity to live happily ever after, but they decided to throw away all the good that God had given them for their well-being by simply eating the forbidden fruit. We know the rest of the story, Adam and Eve disobeyed and sin entered this world and therefore eternal death. Today we are reaping the neglect of our first parents.

Many people have argued the following, why didn’t God intervene when Eve was going to take the forbidden fruit? God had the power to intervene, but He has given us free will. He does not want us to serve him out of fear, but out of love, that is why He gives us the freedom to choose what we want for our life. Today we experience pain, death, and anguish because that was the choice of our first parents. It was not God’s choice.

The plan B

The good news in all this tragedy is that even though human beings disobeyed. God had a plan B, the plan of salvation, already drawn up before man came into existence.  God was in control as the King of the Universe, and the last word is God. There is sin, death, pain, and the coronavirus in our world, but God plans to put an end to all this odyssey and take us back to the heavenly home.

The problems that overwhelm us today come from three sources. The first is the sin of a world that is mortally wounded. The second is the sinful actions of people who are by our side. Third, the sin that lives in us leads us to make mistakes and commit sinful acts.

God is in control and has the last word against sin in this world. He tells us: there is pain, death, and misery, but I will give you eternal life. Are there people who have committed sinful actions against you? Have your rights been violated? Have you been sexually, physically, or emotionally abused? Or, have you been abused, slandered, or hurt? God can take all those destructive actions and change them into an eternal blessing for your life.

The case of Joseph and his brothers

They took Joseph, threw him in a cistern, sold him as a slave, falsely accused him, and he ended up in prison. From all that crisis, God took him out to become the second-largest empire in the world at that time. God used everything negative that had happened in his life for his growth and emotional well-being, training him to be used powerfully in His cause and leading him to transcend his limits. God can also take everything negative that has happened to you and use it powerfully to transform your life into a stepping stone for His kingdom.

The case of Job

Many believe that Satan is the one who is in charge of this world, especially now that we are threatened by the coronavirus. Satan is not in charge. God is above Satan, and he has to ask God for permission to touch your life with the coronavirus. You remember the story of Job. God said to Satan, “You have seen my servant Job, fearful and set apart from evil.” And Satan said to him, “Yes, he serves you because you have a protective fence around him.

Let me touch it, and you will see how it curses you.” God allowed it. Satan destroyed everything that Job had, destroyed his health, his reputation. But Job loved God so much that he never stopped recognizing that God was in control and his pain said: “Naked I came, naked I will return to my mother’s womb, may the name of Jehovah be blessed” Job 1:21.

God has a protective fence around his children. The coronavirus will not be able to touch your home unless God allows it, as it did in the case of Job. Therefore, instead of fainting in the face of the disorders that the coronavirus is causing, get up and trust God, who is in control of your life.

The coronavirus pandemic

Romans 8:28 says the following:”And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, that is, those who are called according to his purpose”.

God has a perfect plan for your life. Perhaps we look at the circumstances that surround us in the face of the coronavirus, and we think that we will remain immobile forever in a place of darkness and pain. The more we ask and cry out to God for help, then the more the depressing circumstances of this crisis seem to be piling up. 

However, there is good news for your soul. Nothing can harm a Christian unless our Lord allows it. And everything that is allowed helps those who love God. If God allows sufferings and perplexities to overtake us, it is not to destroy us, but to refine and sanctify us.

The difficulties and disappointments of this life make us lose our attachment to this world and compel us to look at heaven as our home. They teach us the truth about our fragile and perishable condition and make us depend on God for support and salvation. They also develop a more humble and submissive spirit in us, a more patient and tender disposition.

It has been experienced by the children of God throughout history. And at the end of their lives, they have been able to say that they were afflicted for their good. This truth is reflected in the life of Joseph. Before he died, Joseph said to his brothers: “You thought evil against me, but God directed it to good” (Gen. 50:20). The coronavirus may bring calamity and death to your life, but God will one day take care of transforming pain into eternal blessing.

Trust God during coronavirus pandemic

I challenge you that instead of pulling your hair out of fear of the coronavirus pandemic, you begin to trust God. A God who is in control of your life. A God who will not allow even a hair on your head to fall without His consent. I cannot explain how God works his miracles. If I could understand and explain my God, He would not be my God. What I can explain is that no matter what damage the coronavirus may bring, the last word will not be with this evil virus.

The last word will be heard from the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. He who has the keys of Hades and says to you:

“To the one who overcomes, I will give him/her to sit with me on my throne”. Your destiny is with the God of the Universe. Get up from your ashes of fear and anxiety because your final victory has already been won on the Cross of Calvary.

 

Emotional growth is not proportional to biological growth

by with No Comment Emotional IntelligenceSpiritual growth

Your emotional growth is not proportional to your biological growth.

Why did the people of Israel fail? Why, from that entire generation that left Egypt, did only two people, Joshua and Caleb, get into the Promised Land? The people of Israel failed due to their sinful nature. And perhaps, the reason why you have failures in your marriage or your family is because of the sinful nature you have.

But, even though we have this nature, we do not consider it an excuse for not achieving our dreams or having healthy families because the same God who freed the people of Israel from Pharaoh’s hands is the same God who is present in our lives today and frees us from Satan’s hands, so we can experience a new transformation and a new life in Jesus Christ.

Emotional growth

Let’s study this subject a little deeper. There is a factor that we do not often consider when studying spiritual growth, and that is our sinful nature. This has to do with the fact that we do not often grow spiritually because we do not grow emotionally. Your emotional growth greatly influences how you behave with your family and in your relationships.

This means that if you are learning to love, you need to learn something: love is something you learn and your ability to manage your emotions, your emotional intelligence, has a lot to do with how you are going to learn how to love, how you are going to express the love you have for your wife or husband, your children, and your family.

Emotional growth according to the Bible

Many times, we do not grow because we do not mature emotionally. And this was the problem with the people of Israel. They were released from Egypt. God was present, but they never grew emotionally. What does this mean? Let’s analyze it. Whenever they had a problem, stress, or a crisis in their lives, how did they handle their emotions? The Bible has many examples that show us that they lost control. In the first moment, they tended to curse Moses, the leaders of God’s people, and even God Himself.

They threw stones to eliminate and kill the leaders of God’s people because they were not satisfied with the way God had been leading their lives. And nowadays, the same thing often happens in many relationships: family members argue, fight, and they lose control because they cannot control their emotions. That is why there are many families in crisis.

Emotional growth according to example of life

As a therapist, I have many cases with people coming to the office, destroyed, saying: “My husband (or wife) said words that hurt me emotionally, my husband (or wife) did things that I cannot name here.” This happens because the husband or wife did not know how to manage their emotions.

Often, we do not grow spiritually because we do not grow emotionally. A person can be 50 years old and behave like an emotional child or adolescent because his or her emotional growth is not proportional to biological growth. Many people are confused about this subject, and in my practice, I find many cases in which people do not understand the importance of growing emotionally.

Your emotional growth

Your emotional growth will not be proportional to your biological growth unless you intend to grow, mature, and change the way you think, to reflect Christ’s mind. Otherwise, you will not grow emotionally. And, this is why in your relationship as a husband or a wife, you manifest behaviors that surprise you, and you wonder, “Where did these behaviors come from? Why do I not do the good thing I want to do and do the bad thing I do not want to do?”

That happens because you have not grown emotionally. And since you have not done it, you do not know how to handle your emotions, you do not have emotional intelligence, you do not understand your wife’s emotions, your husband’s, your children’s emotions, and you end up screaming, manifesting negative emotions in a way that God does not want you to manifest them. All because you have not grown emotionally.

Your emotional growth should be proportional to your spiritual growth. This means that in the same way you grow spiritually, you need to grow emotionally. The same Spirit that produces spiritual growth produces emotional growth.

What you can do for reaching emotional growth

Maybe you have been in the Kingdom of God for many years and know the Bible completely. Maybe you are married and have a family, but none of this is going to be important or relevant unless you grow up emotionally. A person who grows spiritually and does not grow emotionally is inconceivable because the same Spirit that produces both kinds of growth must be present.

If we go to the book of Ephesians, we will see that Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit. That is love, joy, and peace. Those fruits are produced by the Holy Spirit. These fruits will not be produced even if you go to church, sing, and read the Bible. But then go home and mistreat your husband or wife, your children, and talk to them improperly. Because you do not have patience, tolerance, or self-control. The same Spirit that leads you to worship and to have the presence of God in your life is the same one that helps you control your emotions.

Due to this confusion, we have decided to present the program “Learning to Love.”

Learning to Love

Yale University has proven and has written many articles that show that 80 percent of people’s success is based on their emotional ability and intelligence.

Maybe you are struggling with your family, with your marriage. Maybe you want a healthy marriage, or to learn to love God and others, but you see that in the middle of that fight, you fail, and like the people of Israel, you give up because you do not know how to do it.

Today, I challenge you to learn something new. If you want to learn how to love, you need to grow, t mature emotionally, to reach Christ’s stature and His mind. This means that you need to reach and develop the emotions Jesus experienced. That is, to have Christ’s mind. You can do it. I also challenge you to start growing emotionally. And, through these posts, we will show you how to grow and develop emotional intelligence.

Through these lines, we want to help you achieve this goal. You can also buy the book Learning to Love on Amazon or contact us.

You can learn how to love and that way, you can transform future generations.

God bless you.