HOW TO SURVIVE YOUR MOODS… AND GROW!
By Frank Eiklor and Cecilia Contreras
LESSON 26 Part 3
INTRODUCTION
This lesson on moods is so important that we’re taking four lessons to complete it. In parts one and two we defined moods and gave examples of how our moods—“affected emotions”—can either make us bitter or better. I suggest you review the first two parts before going on to this present lesson.
OTHER BATTLES THAT AFFECT OUR MOODS
GUILT
This is perhaps one of the roughest ones to handle. I know by bitter experience. My precious mother did not have an easy life. My daddy was an alcoholic, but she stuck faithfully by him for 59 years of marriage. Of all the people in the world I wanted to have a pain-free death, it was my mother. Word came that she had to have her leg amputated. Shortly after, she had the other leg removed as well.
During this time, I was on the phone with her constantly, standing by and caring. We were going through tremendous pressures in a new work at the time, just trying to keep our heads above water. I had led my mom to Christ some years before, but it was her suffering and fear of death that resulted in a deeper faith than she had ever known. She could also now see all of her children in the hospital because my aging father, confined to home, was not able to forbid such visits as he had for so many previous and tragic years.
During one of those telephone calls after the operation, my mother began pleading with me to return to Chicago. Other loved ones, meaning well and apparently knowing the situation better than I did, informed me that she was doing fine and that I should not come at this time. They felt if she later took a turn for the worse, it would be better for me to come then.
To this day, I am convinced I blew it. I now believe my mother’s call was a plea put there by Jesus who wanted me to drop everything and go love her. When I finally got the message straight, I rushed home but she was already in a partial coma. That’s when I learned that my mother had been hanging on desperately—I believe she was just hoping to see me one more time.
As Norma and I began singing gently and praying for her, her eyes opened in a moment of recognition and she squeezed our hands. She had held on long enough to see me. A few hours after our arrival, she was gone. I can’t tell you the struggle I went through. My heart just wouldn’t stop hurting. I was too honest to lie about the guilt that was eating me up so I took a long, long walk with God and cried it all out. I asked His forgiveness and even told Him to ask my mother to forgive me.
That’s when I knew that she was too thrilled and perfect in the presence of her Lord to hold any feelings of sadness toward a son who had not been sensitive enough to discern through all well-meaning arguments and counsel and rush to her side. When I knew I had been honest in confession and there was nothing more I could do, I laid back in the arms of a loving Father, knowing He had forgiven me and that I had learned one of the most bitter and terrible lessons of my life.
What do you feel guilty about? Tell it to Jesus and know that as you do you’re being forgiven and cleansed. When you make an honest, thorough confession without denying the facts in order to make yourself look good, you have God’s guarantee of mercy, forgiveness and cleansing(I John 1:9). The psalmist said that when he tried to keep silent rather than confess his iniquities, even his bones roared within him. But then he said, “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Psalm 32:5).
As for me, the Holy Spirit now fills me with beautiful thoughts concerning my mother and Him. They’re laughing and loving together. She’s not hurting any more and one day together we’ll sing “Amazing Grace” forever.
FEAR
What is your fear? What makes you afraid? Don’t run and hide but instead face that fear. God hasn’t given it to you. On the contrary, He says, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (II Timothy 1:7). The psalmist said, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in you.” He didn’t deny the fear. He just made his fearful moments times of growth by choosing to trust in God.
Come right out with your fear. Let your heavenly Father be your chief psychiatrist. You’ll love the bottom line on the bill He sends which is always written “Paid in Full”. If you’re afraid of something you must do, take the hand of the Lord and walk through it together. Ask God for a close “heart buddy”—someone you can trust with your inner heart—and, if you can’t whip that fear with you and God alone, ask your friend to help you.
Whether yours is a fear of failure, the future, death, or a thousand different things, tell God you’re tired of being governed by that fearful mood. Put it in perspective, see your Lord infinitely bigger than your fears, and cut them down to size with prayerful, positive actions. For example, perhaps you want to further your education but you’re afraid because you’re older now. Give that fear to Jesus, thank Him for putting the desire to learn within you, and sign up for the course you desire to take. You’ll pass with flying colors.
(To be continued)
