Zachary StirewaltThe journey with God is one where we find a tightrope and learn to walk in alignment with Christ’s plan. By discovering how our thoughts and emotions integrate with God can deepen our relationship with Christ, through a process of recognition and surrender.
Balancing the Walk with God
How do we find space for God’s will to be chosen within our own life?
Thoughts & Emotions – Our Human Perspective
- Our own thoughts and emotions are pieces of our psychological state that are “separate from” God, until we learn to surrender and integrate! Most of our thoughts are conjured from the conditions in our life, thinking that we need to do things in a certain way to maintain safety, security, and stability. Emotions are much of the same, providing an opportunity for us to lean-in and understand alignment, or misalignment with the Holy Spirit.
- Finding alignment through an active participation with our own thoughts & emotions through recognition and surrender provides space for God to show us with His next step for our life. The space is still, peaceful, and quite, allowing us to wait for a subtle leaning into our next step. Our goal is to learn how to reside in this stillness and provide God more opportunity to speak.
- When we work with our internal process of alignment with God, we are always going to experience fear. This is our mind and body attempting to keep us small by conforming to what we previously knew, the worldly plan! Our point of integrating with following is to acknowledge the fear, and step into alignment with conviction.
The Practice – Waiting, Listening, and Following
As Christians, it is our goal to align with God’s will and His personal vision for our life. We do this through an internal practice of prayer, contemplation, and stillness. Cultivating this space is where rubber meets the road, and we learn how to interact with our thoughts and emotions in a way that is respectful to the ways in which God desires to live through us.
The most challenging part of this practice is understanding how we invite God to show us a new relationship to our deepest wounds. We do this through “starting small”, with emotions and thoughts that aren’t the biggest difficulty. Our ability to build a foundation of reliance on God through practice gives us the eventual vantage point of a leap of faith. The guidance Christ gives us will lead to our active participation in the world in the way He desires, which is usually far away from where we thought we’d be. And that’s why surrendering our own earthly desires, thoughts, and emotions is necessary.
If you’d like to learn more about integrating mental and emotional health into your life as a Christian, check out our page dedicated to Following God as a Church.