How do you want to handle this trial?

• By candidasullivan
• July 26, 2024
• No Comments

As I lay on the floor, with my eyes closed, desiring deeply an escape from the thoughts and emotions I don’t want to deal with today, this question surfaced in my mind. 

Is this the version of yourself that you want to be? 

We don’t get to choose our circumstances. The enemy’s attacks come unexpectedly, sometimes brutal, but we get to decide how to go through the trials. 

Do I want to be someone who ignores the problem and allows it to get bigger? 

Do I want to be someone who takes the easier path today, knowing it might dig a hole of depression for me in the future? 

Do I want to use my tears for a pity party or to call out to my Lord?

I’m here, in this situation, whether I want to be or not. I’m going through this trial because God deemed it essential for me to go through it. This is not by accident or a mistake. 

I can stay stuck in the cycle for years at this exact place of emotional exhaustion because I refuse to go through it and accept what it is. Or I can sit with the Lord and ask Him to show me how to go through it. 

Resisting my emotions and thinking things should be different than they are makes me feel out of control and powerless. Focusing on what is beyond my control is a recipe for disaster. If I can’t change it, it is beyond my control and falls into the category of God’s business or someone else’s business. Focusing on anything beyond what I can control is exhausting and ultimately unproductive. 

But I feel peaceful and free when I remember that my mindset and actions are the only things in my control. I can choose a different thought if I don’t like the one I’m thinking about. By choosing a different perspective, I can acquire a new emotion, which can help me take empowering actions, give me the desired results, and ultimately put me in control of my mindset about my life. 

It’s empowering to realize that I can decide what matters in my life and what to focus on. I don’t have to stay in this place of feeling emotionally exhausted. I just need to turn off the noise and recenter myself in the Lord’s love and the true essence of who I am. When I trust the Lord to take care of it all in the best way, I let go of the need to fix and control things. 

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References: https://www.healthline.com/health/emotional-exhaustion