Take time to be holy

How often do you find yourself anxious about a particular problem or circumstance? Sometimes it might consume your thoughts. You may feel as if you've got to do something or things will never get better. Perhaps they'll even get worse without your immediate attention and yet you're still torn as to what you could or should possibly do or say to correct the matter at hand. Consider this situation in light of Philippians 4:8 which says;

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (KJV)

In order to devote our consideration to God and truly bring every thought captive to Christ we must first accept responsibility for the things we believe, and learn to question those beliefs. Remember our beliefs result in the action we take that leaves us with feelings of fear, dread and anxiety.

Those of us so often accused of only considering our own feelings usually only consider "how" we feel and not "why" we feel. If we give ourselves the time to find the reason for "why" we will usually identify the lie we believed that resulted in our actions that lead to the hurtful feelings. After we accept the truth we can apply the Golden Rule and learn to become the considerate and compassionate people God intends for us to be.

But what about those of us who rarely, if ever, consider "how we feel"; we who are compassionate and caring and constantly only consider "why" everything is so out of hand despite our best efforts? Why are we mental giants burdened with the task of solving all the problems of the world that others seem to so blatantly overlook? We might be shocked to discover that our anxiety is also the consequence of our being irresponsible with our feelings and believing lies. What's worse, we've likely encouraged others to be inconsiderate by constantly thinking "for" them and making it possible, or enabling them, to think only "of" themselves. This situation is usually the result of having refused to consider our own feelings prior to making a decision. We consider God, and others but don't give ourselves the time to consider our own feelings. We then consider ourselves selfless when in reality we're just plain lazy. It takes real effort to determine "how" we feel about certain circumstances and situations and we have a responsibility to God and others to let them know the truth about how we feel. No one can be expected to consider our feelings when they can't be known and by withholding our feelings we prevent others from becoming considerate. When we fail to take the time or put forth the effort to consider our own feelings we usually make decisions that are detrimental to ourselves and quite often, to others. If we are unable to determine how we feel about our part in any situation we have a responsibility to wait until we know for sure we can feel good about what we're going to do before taking any action.

In both examples above we can see the need to give ourselves time to resolve our feelings. Far too often the deceiver can use our impatience to tempt us to sin. We should never allow ourselves to feel forced or pressured into anything. We should question our reasoning and listen for answers like "I have no choice" or "I have to do something". If we accept reasons like those we will certainly fail to take the time to be holy. If we take time to be holy we'll find our mind free to dwell on those things that God intended.