The Ups and Downs of Life…

Have you ever wondered why some days you’re on top of the world and on other days you’re down in the dumps? Me too. What happens to us that causes such a dramatic shift in perspective? What events or circumstances have come into play? Or, is it not connected to exterior things at all? Has something taken place in our minds that we are completely unaware of and as such, cannot perceive what changed? These are the questions that must be answered if we are going to solve the riddle and live our lives on the high road. Are you troubled by the ups and downs of life? Read on…

I think it is important, before any discovery can take place, to survey the actual playing conditions. In this life, we do not function in a vacuum. That is to say, life is not a neutral affair whereby there are no influences that affect how we feel. This may be the case in the future during the great by and by, but not now. Living on the earth today there are influences we all must contend with. These influences are spiritual in nature and cannot be discerned with your human reasoning. Understanding them requires spiritual perception which can only be employed if you have holy spirit. These forces work imperceptibly (to the senses) to influence how we think. In a sense, they manipulate our emotions and feelings. If you are going through the downs in life, these influences are likely at play. They work, through the systems of the world. the great wheel of things, to lead our thinking in a certain direction. In order for you to feel bad, to lack enthusiasm, to feel as if there is nothing to look forward to in life, something has impacted your thinking. Something is going on in that head of yours and leading you to feel a certain way. Those mindsets are not natural and are not just part of life. However, all of us have to deal with them. How the darkness and spiritual enemies we face are able to impact us so heavily is beyond me. But, like you, I am well able to register the effects. While it may seem a little scary at first, as no-one likes to think evil is at play, it should rather give you some peace in knowing there is nothing wrong with you, but rather you registering the effects. Starting there, you are now able to understand that the downs in life will come, but that you are able to do something about it and that something involves your mind.

Oh if we only finally recognized how much our minds, our thoughts, our emotions impact how we feel about life! What you are thinking does matter. The things going through your mind do matter. Those thousands of thoughts you think during a day will determine how you feel about things and when you feel bad, rest assured in knowing wrong thoughts are the culprit. These wrong thoughts are myriad and play out in a million combinations. Some of them are so subtle, so deleterious, so cruel, that they can shift our mood in seconds and turn a good day into a bad day. Sure, on the surface you would attribute the trouble to certain events and circumstances. There may indeed be circumstances involved. But, again, know that the majority of this fight takes place in your mind both in your response to negative events and predominately in the conclusions you are drawing. This is what I meant by being led to something. You and I have to be very vigilant concerning our thoughts. You have to pay attention. On those days when you are on top of the world, joyful, peaceful, blessed, something is going right. You are directing your thoughts in the right direction. But, like any good time, here comes the opposition seeking to steal away whatever you got right. This is what is happening to you. Maybe you finally got around to trusting God without all of your religious rules and suddenly life is good. Then, that old accuser sneaks in and points out what is wrong with you and where you need improvement, leading you, driving you back to self – and all joy is immediately lost.  Welcome to the world, welcome to this life. The breech happened in your thinking as you knowingly or unknowingly entertained those thoughts. If you want to live on the high road, you have to control your thoughts.

Controlling your thoughts is not the whole matter. You must control your thoughts in accordance with some standard of truth. Without truth, your ardent efforts to control your thinking will be all for naught because the essence of control must result in something positive. For example, if you think you must live under the Old Testament law, and control your thinking towards that end, you will not find the happiness you seek because God did away with the Old Testament law. He did away with it because no-one could fulfill it and thereafter every one that tried to live it failed also. Instead God instituted a new plan whereby believing in one man, a perfect man, who did live it perfectly, man could forever rest from his incessant efforts to make himself better. That is truth. That is something to fight back with. Otherwise, every time you started to enjoy this life and the freedom God has given you, you would quickly descend, following some accusatory thoughts, back down to the ever present question, “what is wrong with me?” Feeling down and blase and without any zest for life happens because we have listened to the wrong voice.

The remedy to the downs of life, the bad days, is clear. To begin in the moment of awareness, think about what you have been thinking about. Invest yourself in figuring it out. What have you been saying to yourself about yourself? What faulty, untrue conclusions have you been drawing? If God says you are righteous, for example, how could you add to that? What disciplines can you employ to make yourself right before God? Good luck with that quest. The enemies we face our well schooled in that approach and will use it against us whenever they can. You may note, if you are paying attention, that on your good days you are not engaged in this negative introspection. Instead you are just living your life, embracing the moment and enjoying what is. That is the definition of a good day. You just live it and enjoy it and don’t assign any other unnecessary thoughts to it. Have you noticed, you actually do much better when you are not consumed with yourself? At some point, you have to let self and what is wrong with self go. You will never improve self by dwelling on self. A paradox I know, but it is true. In order to enjoy and live consistently in the “ups” of life, you have to be willing to let go of self or more accurately, what is wrong with self. Similarly, on the bad days, the “down” days, you also must decide not to dwell on the lies about yourself, but instead decide to think thoughts that are based on truth. Nothing you will ever encounter or face in this life can stand up against the truth. The truth is always the high road!

Start now to control your thinking. Find out what is true and cleave to it. The “downs” of life will always contradict God’s Word. Make some time for yourself and talk it over with God. God wants your life to be on the high road, but he also knows what you and I are up against. Your bad days are not benign, but instead the result of negatives being introduced to your thoughts. If you think the wrong thoughts or at minimum do not challenge the wrong thoughts, you will find yourself at the bottom of the cycle. But, you are not stuck there. Instead you owe it to yourself to find the solution. There is always a solution. The ups and downs are common to all people living on earth. We all have them and we all experience them. But, we also have the privilege of getting things straight. On the “up” days hallelujah, praise God. Embrace them. On the “bad” days, know something is calling aloud for remedy and challenging wrong thoughts or else deciding to think good thoughts is the answer. Lord knows I have been on both sides of this equation. But, I have learned that when I’m not feeling good or lack enthusiasm, something is wrong and I cannot let it go. We all want the good days and we all dislike the bad days. But, neither condition needs to control us. Instead we need to control our thoughts. Remember, you are likely not the cause of your bad days, but you do decide what you will think and what you will continue to think. Choose good thoughts based on truth. Get on the high road and stay there.

Just some good thoughts…