Clear: Embracing Mental & Emotional Freedom

Part II

I Thessalonians 5:23

²³ Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I.                   THREE REALMS OF EMOTIONAL ATTACK

1.     Our Sin (Our Fallen Nature)

Guilt; Shame; Condemnation; Rejection etc.

2.     Satan

3.     People

a.      Abuse by Authority Figures

b.     Manipulation from Relationships

c.      Violation of Trust

d.     Physical Abuse

II.                EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES CAN MARK US

They don’t have to define us but they can mark us…

1.     Parents with Addictive or Compulsive Behavior raise Children that are:

Thwart with unpredictability, lying to cover up, disappointments, false promises, anger or rage. As a result children growing up in such homes usually encounter certain tendencies:

a.       Avoid Conflict

Adult children of alcoholics have a fear of people who are in authority, people who are angry, and do not take personal criticism very well.  Often they misinterpret assertiveness for anger.

b.      Became approval seekers and loose their identity in the process.

c.       Usually adopt some kind of compulsive behavior (Substance or workaholic)

d.      Usually Develop Fear of Emotions or Feelings
Adult children of alcoholics tend to bury their feelings (particularly anger and sadness) since childhood and are not able to feel or express emotions easily. Ultimately they fear all powerful emotions and even fear positive emotions like fun and joy.

e.       Have A high burden of responsibility and constant approval seeking

Adult children of alcoholics are oversensitive to the needs of others. Their self-esteem comes from others’ judgments of them, thus having the compulsive need to be perfectionists and be accepted.

f.        An inability to relax and have fun.

Adult children of alcoholics cannot have fun because it is stressful, especially when others are watching. The child inside is frightened, and in an effort to appear perfect, exercises strict self-control.

g.       Harsh self-criticism and low self esteem

Adult children of alcoholics are weighed down with a very low sense of self-esteem and respect, no matter how competent they may be.

h.      The tendency to confuse love with pity.

Adult children of alcoholics are often in relationships with people they can rescue.

i.        Tendency to see everything and everyone in extremes, when under pressure

III.             SIGNS OF UNHEALTHY EMOTIONS

1.     Being stuck in a repetitive cycle

2.     Walls, Afraid to let others in

3.     Consistently Unhappy Relationships

4.     Frequent illnesses

5.     A Deep sense of Unworthiness (Low Self Esteem)

Numbers 13:31-33

³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” ³² And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. ³³ There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

a.      We must have healthy self esteem to obey the word

Matthew 22:37-38

³⁷ Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Ephesians 5:28-29

²⁸ So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.

6.     Perfectionism

These perfectionists have been programmed to unrealistic expectations, impossible performance, conditional love, and a subtle theology of works

Perfectionism is a constant and all-pervading feeling of never quite measuring up, never quite being or doing enough to please

7.     Super-sensitivity

IV.             THE BEGINNING PROCESS OF HEALING

Start by embracing the Love and Acceptance of God

1.     What right have you to belittle or despise someone whom God loves so deeply?

1 John 3:1

“Consider the incredible love that the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called ‘children of God’”

2.     What right have you to belittle or despise someone whom God has honored so highly?

Psalm 8:4-5

⁴ What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? ⁵ For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

3.     What right have you to belittle or despise someone whom God values so highly?

Romans 5:6-8

⁶ For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

4.     What right have you to belittle or despise someone whom God has provided for so fully?

Matthew 7:11

¹¹ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Luke 12:32

³² “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

5.     What right have you to belittle or despise someone whom God has planned for so carefully?

Ephesians 1:3-5

³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. ⁴ Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. ⁵ God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.  NLT

6.     What right have you to belittle or despise someone in whom God delights?

Numbers 14:8

8 If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.

Answer Key: Condemnation; define, HEALING,