Fight or Wallow

#1 Satan hits us when we're weak. (Check it out, Matthew 4)
#2 For women, well at least for me, we're a lot weaker at certain times of the month.

Fight or Wallow

I can feel it coming.  It's not a physical feeling for me...it's an emotional one. 
All of a sudden, everyone is a little bit annoying, and everything is a little bit personal.
I'm bombarded by negative thoughts..."my life is a failure, I'm no good, everyone else is succeeding, I'm the loser, it's somebody else's fault, and the whole world is bad, bad, bad." 

Of course, nothing externally has really changed.  I'm just weakened, tired, and vulnerable.

I've been trying to find a good strategy to fight this monthly downward spiral. 
I've really been praying about it, and this month the Lord has provided the answer.

As it usually goes, this answer was right in front of my face...I just needed to focus on it.

 

FOCUS...

~ Like winning (or just finishing) a race or a long run most of the fight takes place in the mind...I've written about this before, here. 

I've been studying 1 Thessalonians with a group of ladies at church and also with a couple of my high school students.  Chapter five, verses 16-22, and the study that surrounded them really helped me keep my mind in the clear this time around.

¹⁶ Rejoice always; ¹⁷ pray without ceasing; ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit; ²⁰ do not despise prophetic utterances. ²¹ But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; ²² abstain from every form of evil.

I really like having step-by-step instructions, and these verses really summed it up for me.  This was the Lord's answer to me for my battle against the monthly blues.

• Rejoice always. {Find joy and focus on it!}
• Pray without ceasing. {Always keep that open line of communication to the Lord...that's where the power is.}
• In everything give thanks. {Be thankful, even if someone else has it better...be thankful for them too!}
• Do not quench the Spirit. {Don't let the flesh rule.}
• Do not despise prophetic utterances. {Stay in the Word, and do what it says.}
• Examine everything carefully. {Even my own thoughts...are they Biblical?}
• Hold fast to that which is good. {Focus on those things.}
• Abstain from every form of evil. {Keep the jealous, bitter, self-absorbed thoughts out!}

Also, in our study we did a cross-reference to Hebrews 12:1-3 to learn how to encourage the faint-hearted...I'm going to use this on myself as well as others:

12 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

³ For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Again, I broke it down to some step-by-step moves:

• "So great a cloud of witnesses" {I'm not alone in this journey of life.}
• "lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us" {Confess it, repent of it, lay it down.}
• "Run with endurance the race that is set before us" {Run my race, not someone else's.}
• "fixing our eyes on Jesus" {That's the finish line, the goal (I mean, He's already sitting down!)...keep my eyes on him.}
•  "consider Him" {Nothing I go through comes close to what Christ went through for me.}

Focusing on these verses this week and month has really put the reset button on how I deal with the emotional rollercoaster of being a female. 

Life is always going to be a fight, and there's always going to be the enemy fighting to win our attention.  He's locked and loaded to give us excuses for bad behavior and self-wallowing. 

We have to keep our eyes on the prize...a life of peace with Christ now, and a life of peace with Christ forever. 

Keep up the fight!