Thursday, August 1st, 2024
Yesterday, as I found myself face to face with some unwanted emotions and thoughts, I had a decision to make. Should I venture down their path and feed them whatever they were looking for or should I ask God to show me what needs to be addressed in that place? Well, this time I chose the latter.
I was sitting in a parking lot waiting for my husband to arrive so that we could travel together to a planned event. As I sought the Lord, He reminded me that the last time I was in that very same parking lot (in perhaps the same spot) was just over five and a half years ago. I was miscarrying a child and I met my husband so that he could take me to emergency. The weeks and months and years that followed that event were plagued with fear, anxiety, depression and all sorts of unfruitful emotions that resulted from the trauma of that day.
I have been reading a book called Emotional Healing Made Simple by Praying Medic. In it he shares numerous testimonies of how he has taken people through a process to heal the emotions that were and continue to be stirred up by past traumas. So I used some of his principles in that parking lot and asked Jesus to heal all the emotions that I felt as I sat in my vehicle. I’m believing that some unhealthy soul ties were broken in that place and that my soul was bound back to Jesus.
As I have continued to think on that moment yesterday, I feel like the point God is highlighting to me is the importance of dealing with the revelations that God gives us in the moment that He gives them to us. The enemy would rather we file it in our rolodex of “things we will get to someday”. Sometimes we say, “Oh God, that’s good; I’ll pray for that the next time I meet with You.” Or we say, “Oh I should make a note to talk to so and so about that the next time we have coffee.” Don’t get me wrong, there may be times that this is what God wants, but I am starting to see that more often than not, these thoughts are actually delay tactics from the enemy. He is getting good at deploying them to keep us from dealing with the revelations that God gives us. Let’s look at a scripture. Ephesians 5:15-17 says:
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
That phrase redeeming the time can be translated as buying up the time or rescuing it from loss (Strong’s). God is revealing things to us when He does for an exact purpose. The more obedient we become at addressing these things in the moment I believe will set us up to redeem more time and more purpose in our lives.
Final Thoughts…
Let’s challenge ourselves today to see if there are any places where the enemy has successfully deployed a delay tactic in our lives. Most of what God asks us to do isn’t going to be scaling a 15,000 foot mountain or solo rowing across an ocean. More often than not it’s a simple prayer to heal something from our past or break something from the generations that came before us. It could be a simple sentence meant for the grocery store worker or a request to pray with the server at the restaurant. Whatever it is, don’t let the enemy make you overthink it or try to plan the “perfect” place to address it. If God is giving it to you, it’s probably meant for that exact moment. Lord, make us wise so that we will understand and be obedient to Your will whenever and wherever we are.