This is one of those posts. The kind that I just have to type out because the truths may explode from inside of me if I don’t get them on “paper.” And that’d be all kinds of ugly for the Starbucks employees that are so innocently standing behind me doing their jobs.
Two things.
First, I have a question for you. “What thoughts are suffocating your soul?” Think about it for a minute. What’s suffocating you?
I had a long, desperate chat with God the other day that included lots of capital letters written on legal-sized, yellow notebook paper, telling Him how my soul felt like it was suffocating in one particular area of my life. And I realized it was because I kept. thinking. about. that thing.
I kept analyzing and wondering and managing and turning it on all its possible angles and the thoughts were killing my joy and my peace and…me! The last words I scribbled on that paper were, “I’m tired of thinking so much about this, Lord. I’m tired of trying to control this. I want YOU to consume my thoughts.”
And He started ushering in freedom.
What does “He ushered in freedom” mean? Well, it means He drew me in. It means that, by His grace, I dove into His Word and shared my heart with some dear friends and prayed. It means I started hearing the sermon my faithful Father was tenderly, sweetly speaking to me. The sermon of FREEDOM.
Freedom to rest. Freedom to trust. Freedom to love Him in the midst of the unknown. Freedom to not think the thing to bloody death.
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Galatians 5:1
Here’s where it really steps on our toes.
And He showed me, whatever suffocates our peace and joy may be an indicator of some idol we’re allowing into our heart. Granted, life is straight-up hard at times. Things affect us. And God is tender to our humanity. But soul-suffocation isn’t in His job description. That’s a work of the enemy. That’s a work of our short-sighted flesh. God Almighty is in the freedom-business.
So first, what thoughts are suffocating your soul?
Second, there’s only one way out of that suffocating-cycle: WORSHIP. Worship. On Sunday our pastor mentioned idolatry and he said something that felt like water to my soul. He said (and I paraphrase), “We get out of idolatry the same way we got in. We worship our way out.”
Drop. The. Mic.
Is that not brilliant?! We worship our way out. If something other than our God consumes our soul — suffocating our peace and hope and joy — the way out is worship. We worship our God with singing and repenting and praise and prayer and reading His Word and fellowship with other believers and dancing (yes, dancing….possibly utilizing the “Roger Rabbit” or whatever your particular brand of dancing includes). We worship our way out. Because He’s got this! Whatever this is, our God hasn’t forgotten His children.
More than a solution to our problems, our awesome God wants to grace us with a solution to our souls. He stands in love offering fulness in Him — a fulness we actually experience by His absolute grace through the stirring of His Spirit which happens through worship.
That’s it. Two things. Identify any thought patterns that suffocate your soul. And then worship your way out. And now I don’t have to explode. You’re welcome, Starbucks.
Fill me, Lord…
Is anything suffocating your soul? What can worship look like in your life today?
This was so what I needed to hear and I didn’t even know it! My soul suffocating thoughts lately have centered on adoption. Don’t get me wrong, adoption is totally a God-thing, and a good thing, but when it consumes your thoughts, I can see how, when thinking about it constantly, it can become an idol. I’ve been praying, laying it at the foot of the cross, and giving it over to God for months now, but then I pick it right back up. Ugh! My humanness sometimes… My way to “worship my way out of this” will be to go to scripture and SING SING SING!
Thank you for your encouraging words
Sarah! So good. And I think often it is the “good” things or desires that can consume our hearts and minds. Praying for deep worship and sweet communion with your God today.
I know you don’t know me from Adam but I just have to say…I love ya! I love your heart – the way you have with words – your wonderful sense of humor – and I really, really love the way our God uses you to speak to me – again & again!! And although I never would have put it that way…Yes!! There are things suffocating my soul and the way out is to WORSHIP my way out? That is profound. Just. Profound. Thank you. 🙂
I found this so reassuring. I have not only been going through a horrendous divorce, my house is suffering from subsidence so cannot be sold, I have no money to put it right, its overbearing me, suffocating me, I pray, I pray and I pray – but nothing happens, so now I have given this to God to help me find a way out – I have faith he will, but oh the pressure on me is awful – my husband cursed me to hell for eternity and that is something I can never come to terms with. I just need Jesus to put his arms round me and tell me everything is going to be alright. This is going around and around my head – no way out. Thank you
Nail.on.the.head. Thank you, Lara! Thing(s) consuming my thoughts? What do I do next? Are my ideas good ideas? Should I act on them, or not? Should I go get another box of fundraiser chocolate covered almonds? Probably not. But maybe? Should I run? Should I yell this time? Idolizing myself?
Worship. The answer. Starting…now. And asking for God’s wisdom.
Thank you!
Thank you, sweet Jesus. He knew exactly what I needed to hear, to get things going in my spirit, so I wouldn’t explode. Those words were just what I needed to hear. Err, read.