God's Power to Survive Emotions: A Path to Peace Within Your Skin

By Linda D. Edwards

God created us with both positive and negative emotions, and we often struggle to live each day with these conflicting mental states. In Gods Power to Survive Emotions, author Linda Edwards introduces five of the negative emotions that God has created within us: anxiety, anger, loneliness, grief, and fear. These can sometimes stand between us and our service to the Lord.

Even so, there is hope and peace for us all. This guide explores how God encourages us to deal with these negative emotions in positive, peaceful ways through a series of lessons. Each lesson includes personal examples; exegesisthat is, a critical interpretation of the Bible; and Scriptures to aid in the journey toward understanding and controlling these emotions. Edwards concludes the text with a chapter on finding peace within your skin, challenging the audience to examine their personal history with God.

By learning to turn to God and His Word for guidance, believers can transform their negative emotions into positive emotions and discover the peace thateveryone longs for in their lives. Gods Power to Survive Emotions offers a practical, achievable road map to finding the path to a happy life in service to the Lord.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512702927

Linda D. Edwards

Linda D. Edwards is a minister’s wife. A biblical storyteller, she regularly teaches Bible studies and leads women’s conferences. Her articles have appeared in such publications as Church Administration Magazine and Journey. She and her husband, Billy, have been in the ministry for thirty-five years. They are from Louisiana.

Book preview

God’s Power

TO

Survive Emotions

A Path to Peace within Your Skin

LINDA D. EDWARDS

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Copyright © 2015 Linda Edwards.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-0291-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-0293-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-0292-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015913942

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/10/2015

CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Living with Anxiety

2. Facing Anger

3. Dealing with Loneliness

4. Surviving Grief

5. Overcoming Fear

6. Peace within My Skin

To my beloved Christian husband, Billy, who has always stood beside me through all my many emotions, both negative and positive. He has loved me unconditionally. He has always surrounded me with his love. He has encouraged me, stood by me, and supported me in everything I ever wanted to do.

To my husband, Billy, the man who still makes my heart skip a beat when he enters the room, even after forty-plus years of marriage.

And

to the memory of my Christian parents, Charles and Lovinie Blaisdell, who gave me life,

loved me and raised me in a Christian home. They taught and guided me while my Christian foundation in life was being developed.

INTRODUCTION

Many years ago I had to deal with and accept the reality that I have many emotions. Sometimes they come screaming out at me when I least expect them. Sometimes they are good emotions, and then at other times, well, let us just say they are not so good. As a woman serving the Lord, I have had to learn how to deal with these emotions that seem to jump up and override my mind and body.

As a young woman, I struggled with my many emotions. I did not know where to put them or how to best use them. Now as a woman who is enjoying the fall season of my life, I have learned through these years that God created me with the many emotions that I have. I have learned over time that I should look at these emotions as a blessing from my Father in Heaven and not as a sentence of everlasting trouble.

When life would hand me something to manage in the days of raising my child or dealing with the many sides of being a pastor’s wife or trying to hold a job on this earth, I would squirm like someone who had just been doused with itching powder. Why, I would ask, is this happening to me? What is God trying to teach me by letting me go through this? One morning as I was praying and venting to God (He always listens to me), He revealed to me some Scripture. I picked up my Bible to have my morning devotion, and the scripture was found in Ecclesiastes, chapter three, which I know was written in the Bible for a woman like me.

"There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven

"A time to give birth, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted.

"A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build up,

"A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

"A time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to shun embracing.

"A time to search, and a time to give up as lost, A time to keep, and a time to throw away.

"A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together, A time to be silent, and a time to speak.

"A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

"What profits is there to the worker from that in which he toils?

"I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.

"He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

"I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime:

"Moreover, that everyman who eats and drinks sees well in all his labor—it is the gift of God

I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him (Ecclesiastes 3:1–14 NASB). (Please see slides three and four.)

Wow! After reading that, I realized that many of the things my emotions allow me to toil about are ridiculous, because God is truly in control. Time belongs to God yesterday, today, and tomorrow. (Please see slide five.) So with this Scripture in my heart and mind, I decided at least for this day to take my many emotions and set them aside. I will allow God to be in control and will stop trying to control my world. When I would try and control my world, my emotions usually would take over and take control of me. Notice that I said that for today I would stop trying to be in control, because tomorrow—well, tomorrow will be another day, and I will need to start over again. When I think about tomorrow, I am reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 6:34 (NAS): "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." So with this Scripture in mind, I try and take it one day at a time.

I have learned through the years that these emotions are from God. He gave me these emotions to protect me, sometimes to cushion the blow for me, and to mold me into being all He wants me to be as a woman serving Him. I have learned to thank God for the many emotions that He has given to me, because realizing that He gave them to me also helps me to realize that because of these emotions, I have grown as a Christian woman. With both negative and positive emotions running around in my body, I have had to lean on God for my daily guidance. I know I must always start my days with that special time in prayer, where I ask God to help me deal with who I am and with the emotions that make me just me. (Please see slide six.) In this book, we will look at emotions that I have dealt with and how God has helped me to grow. The negative emotions are the ones that I have had to learn more about, because those are the emotions that Satan seems to want to use to separate me from my relationship with my heavenly Father and from my service to Him. So by learning more about God’s timing and about my emotions, I have learned how to turn my negative emotions around into positive emotions. Thus, I will be more in tune with what God would have me to do and more able to serve Him. I hope reading this book will help you as you learn about and deal with these two wonderful gifts that God has so blessed us with: time and emotions.

With this in mind, let us get started.

CHAPTER ONE

Living with Anxiety

The first emotion that I would like to write about seems to jump out at everyone, or at least everyone that I have known. That emotion is called anxiety.

The Merriam-Webster’s Desk Dictionary 1995 Edition says anxiety means