Life As I Know It In The Crazy Lane

“Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you;

He will never let the righteous fall.” Psalm 55:22

 

                Have you ever been faced with a problem that you attempt to solve in a way that you’ve always done and it didn’t work?  So then you try the same solution only to do it harder or more deliberately.  When that doesn’t work you become even more aggressive. In the process we get frustrated, try harder, get angry, try harder, and continue to exert so much energy and anxiety that we finally throw up our arms and say ‘Forget it!’  If we don’t change our method we will start to feel crazy.

                We can get caught up into this same pattern with people.  We try to reach out to someone who has rejected us before and it doesn’t work.  We try again, even harder, and they reject us again. So we try again and again, each time exerting more of an effort and exposing more of our heart, only to have that person coldly turn their backs on us and walk away.

                Sometimes it’s appropriate and necessary to turn our efforts away from the individual physically where we are becoming weary and frustrated, and transfer all that energy into prayer where there is power and success.  For those of us who were raised in homes where we tried to get our needs met by parents who were unable to do so, it’s not uncommon for us to keep trying. What we need to understand is that the past is destined to repeat itself without godly intervention. In other words, you cannot get love, acceptance, and affirmation from a source that is incapable of giving it no matter how many times you keep going to it. Apart from God changing that person, they never will be able to fulfill your need.

                When you keep going to an empty source to get your needs met, you are setting yourself up for failure, giving them your power and allowing that individual to control your emotions.  The Bible calls this casting your pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6). Take that power and control back by going to the One who can fulfill all your needs. Second, pray for those who have mistreated you (Matt. 6:28). In both cases, you will find that you are not only setting yourself up for spiritual success, but that you will begin to heal from your past, learn appropriate boundaries, and mature in Christ.