Nourishing Your Spirit

  by Guest Writer Lynnis Woods Mullins

Having a quiet place within your home where you can go and meditate, pray, write in your journal, and just have quiet time is important. If you have some extra space in your house or an actual room you can use, try some of these ideas to create your “safe haven” of peace and tranquility.

Things You’ll Need:

• space within your home that will allow for quite time
• a spare room you can use
• candles
• chair
• pillows and throws
• personal items that have significance to you
• a small table
• CD player
• your favorite books on personal development, prayer, meditation, poetry, or other books that bring you a sense of peace
• shelf for your books
• plant

1.      A comfortable chair or small sofa is inviting and relaxing.  Select a comfortable chair or an easy chair to place in the room or space you have identified. If you have room a small sofa is always nice to have in the room for lounging or even a quick doze. The furniture you place in this room should be comfortable for reading and journaling also. (more…)

          

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My love affair with God is growing and growing. Although my new love for God started in church almost 20 years ago, it wasn’t until God separated me unto himself and took me through a desert experience that I began not to just know of God, but truly experience Him on a personal level.

As new or immature believers in Christ, our walk is generally characterized by what we do for God. Although the gift of salvation is free, it’s hard for our natural minds to comprehend that we can get something for nothing. Our church leaders also weight us down with a litany of what good Christians do. Good Christians never miss a Sunday Service, attend weekly bible study, volunteer in several ministries, read their Bibles everyday, and the list goes on. As a result, when we fail to meet these standards, guilty feelings surface and fear sets in. We may even question whether we are saved.

The irony is that going to church doesn’t necessarily constitute a relationship with God just as not going to church suggests a lack of one. The first time I stopped going to church I was guilt-ridden. I must be in a back-slidden condition I ponderedt, although my heart was just as devoted to God as ever.  Scriptures like, “do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together,” surely meant I was on my way to hell. Yet at that time in my life going to church left me feeling empty. It was just a weekly ritual, a habit that I had been doing for years and I was tired of putting myself through its misery. (more…)

          

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“Come unto to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”- Matthew 11:28

I truly believe that depression is the result of internalized fear. Fear can take many forms such as anxiety, worry, guilt, regret, jealousy, and even anger. Usually we fear a loss or unwanted situation.  For example, fear of losing a loved one, wages, health, or even face can cause great anxiety. These situations, if not properly dealt with, steal our peace of mind and well-being.

As Christians, it’s important not to mask or deny our fears. Often we will try to cover our fears and insecurities with faith words. We often put on that Christian happy face and tell others we are blessed or everything is fine, even though there is deep pain in our heart.  In solitude, we may earnestly pray and ask God to take our pain away or sing songs of worship and praise, only for that heavy feeling to return again and again.

Though heartfelt, prayer and praise alone may not help in eliminating our negative emotions.  Instead of releasing them, they are buried further down into our subconscious mind, where they gnaw at us and weigh us down creating a perpetual dark cloud over our heads. 

If we look at this from a logical standpoint, if we focus only on the emotion, its like implementing solutions to a problem that has not been properly identified. In almost all cases, our negative emotions are not the problem but only a symptom of it. The presence of negative emotions is the indicator that something is wrong. Feelings of anxiety, depression, anger, fear, or sadness is our body’s way of saying we are out of alignment with God’s perfect plan for us or His spiritual well-being. If we stop only at the negative emotion or try to eliminate the emotion without going deeper, it’s like putting a band aid on cancer. (more…)

          

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