Problems can be like a subbmission chokehold...

Problems, Depression, Anxiety, they can be like a choke hold waiting for you to say mercy or I surrender.

As a kid I loved to wrestle, it;s something my 4 brothers and I liked. On Saturday afternoons we would watch wrestling on TV. My only sister and our Dad loved it too. A scrappy nature is in our genes. My grandfather really enjoyed boxing.

When wrestling you would try to put the opponent in a submission hold where they would finally say, I surrender or mercy.

I think sometimes that this is how Satan works. He piles on the pressure, perhaps its a buildup of struggles ranging from finances, death, illness, marital and parenting challenges, guilt of falling short, etc. and like a big wrestler sitting on you, he wants you to say, I give up. He is relentless and is everywhere and in everything. He is like a scrappy hockey player trash talking you and bating you into frustration to limit your effectiveness.

This week at my weekly phsyciatrist session my counsellor talked to me about living in the moment. I am sitting there thinking, ya right. How am I supposed live in the moment and not look back, right or left? This is what it feels like God is trying to teach our house though, to set our sights on Him, to focus on Him, to not be crushed by the past and to leave the future with Him. It;s not easy and I constantly find my mind going astray. This is when I have to reign in my thoughts. Sometimes I can do this through deep breathing, sometimes by simply saying to myself I am not going there, sometimes by reading verses I have stashed here and there, sometimes by praying and other times through faith. I have to make the right choice. I have to focus on how God has delivered us rather than on disappointments. It sounds a lot easier than it is!!

"Grace heals emotions. Forgiveness heals relationships. Trust heals fear. Without them, ongoing hurt makes you bitter, not better." -RW

There are lots of verses in the bible that talk about dealing with fears, but I am learning that it takes a great deal of faith to realize on their promises.

Matthew 6:25-34 (http://www.biblegateway.com/)

New International Version (NIV)
Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?
²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

What are these verses with out faith? It takes faith to believe in God's provision.

Kari Jobe - The more I seek You

David Crowder (Hoedown) I Saw The Light / I'll Fly Away