LET IT GO!
Felcy Rajesh shares how she has found great peace in her life.
AN OBSERVATION
As a mother of four young children, I have often seen them with a new toy that intrigues them. They play with it, not sharing it with the others. They can hold on to it for hours. They might even insist on taking it to bed with them. But I know that they will never get to sleep while they have it in their hands because they are fascinated by it and can’t stop playing with it. Usually, I have to intervene and take it away from them. With some resistance, they relent and finally they drop off to a peaceful sleep.
OUR BURDENS
Using this example, Jesus taught me a lot of things. Many of us hold on to things, material and emotional, while trying to live a peaceful life and we wonder why we always feel troubled and unhappy. Knowingly or unknowingly we are burdened with things from the past that we will not let go of. Just as the child resists when the toy is taken away from them, we too find it hard to let go of some things.
NEGATIVE FEELINGS
Some of the things we hold on to are negative emotional feelings about ourselves or others. This may be past hurts, disappointments, rejection or loneliness. Or it could be feelings of hatred. Sometimes we are consciously aware of these but often we don’t even know that they exist deep within us. They sometimes surface when we react in a strange way to a situation and later we wonder why we reacted in such a way. It is probably the negative feelings in our subconscious that are making us react that way.
MATERIAL THINGS
The things we hold on to could be material things. We think that it is the things that we possess that give us happiness and peace. For example take mobile phones. Today, we rely on our mobiles to do a lot of things. We speak to our friends, we message them, surf the internet, listen to music and play games. If we wanted to, we could spend all day on our phones. We try to find happiness by keeping in constant touch with our friends. We try to forget our pains and internal turmoil by watching videos or playing games. We try to gain acceptance or get other’s attention by posting various comments on social media. We are becoming slaves to our phones. But do we get what we actually want or yearn for by doing all this? This is a question to ask ourselves and ponder on. Do we possess our phones or do they possess us?
FINDING PEACE
So just as a child holding their toy, struggles to fall asleep, when we carry any emotional or material ‘toys’ they stop us from living a peaceful life. Jesus has shown me that we need to let go of the things in our lives that are holding us back from drawing closer to Him. Matthew 11:28 shows us how to fnd peace when it says, “Come to me, all that are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest."
INNER HEALING
We will know what we need to let go of and surrender to Jesus only when we spend time with the Lord every day. In our personal time with Jesus we need to reflect on all that has happened that day and surrender it to him, along with the emotional impact it has had on us. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will remind us of certain incidents in the past that we need to surrender to Him and then we will receive healing. The Holy Spirit, who knows everything, can heal even the deepest wounds in our subconscious minds. Just be open to Jesus and say, “Lord, I surrender all the negative thoughts and feelings to you. Please heal me.” When you do this you will experience some amazing and wonderful inner healing."
PERSONAL PRAYER
Just as a computer needs anti-virus software and a regular disk clean-up, we too need our daily personal prayer time with God to clean up our mind and root out all the negative thoughts and feelings. Personal prayer is the passport to a peaceful life. I recommend reading a wonderful small booklet written by Linda Schubert called “Miracle Hour” which helps us and guides us through our daily cleansing and how to get the most from our daily personal prayer.
MY EXPERIENCE
From experience I can say that with regular quality time with Jesus and disciplining my body and mind I have found great peace. He has given me the peace and rest that He has promised. I know that His yoke is easy and His burden is light because I have the peace that surpasses all understanding. (Philippians 4:7) I hope and pray that you will all find the peace that I have found.
"My yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:30
