How to Get Emotionally Healthy

The following is a pre-recorded program. I want to help you get emotionally healthy today. It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown.

Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Hey friends, welcome to The Line of Fire, Michael Brown. I've got a special teaching I want to share with you today, opening up the scriptures. I have preached thousands of messages, taught thousands of classes, done, I guess, thousands of radio shows by now. It's a whole lot.

Yeah, it is thousands by now. I don't know that I've ever broken down this subject in this way or even focused on this particular subject this way until today. So I'm not going to take any calls, but I trust this is going to bless you and help you as we finish up our month with the emphasis on let's get healthy. First and foremost, our relationship with God. Everything flows from that. First and foremost, our spiritual well-being. Secondly, our emotional and mental health. I'm not talking about things that are out of our control.

I'm talking about things that are within our control. And then physical health, bodily health. We've talked a lot about that this month. Healthy nutrition, healthy lifestyle, things that you can do to enhance your life. We've talked about those things that are let's get healthy thrust this month while we've continued to address biblical issues and theological issues and cultural issues. Today, I want to talk about emotional well-being. If we divide the human being into spirit, soul, body, which is one biblical way of dividing things. First Thessalonians 5, 23, where Paul prays for the complete sanctification of a spirit, soul, and body.

So the soul would be the realm of the emotions, the realm of human consciousness, the realm of our will, or the interfacing of our spiritual being with our mental being. This is what we're talking about today. And when we talk about emotional health, there's a lot of stress on people today. Many people are really not emotionally healthy. And as always, I don't say this to criticize or to condemn. I'm not speaking as a clinical psychologist or as a professional counselor. I'm not speaking to someone here.

You're clinically depressed and now I'm just trying to add to your depression. I'm speaking broadly in general as a gospel minister. All right, I'm a radio host second to being a gospel minister first. And everything I say flows out of that. There is a lot of unhealth emotionally in the body today.

I'm speaking of the body of Christ. If you don't know Jesus, if you don't have a relationship with God, what I say today will help a little, but not a lot, because everything I'm saying goes back to having a healthy relationship with God. Everything flows out of that.

The foundation of my whole life flows out of that. So I can be of some help, but the great help I could do is to point you to Jesus, to be in right relationship with God, to have your sins forgiven, to be at peace and heart and mind and soul, to be able to respond with love and grace towards others, to have God's hope and faith inside of you. But for those of you who do know the Lord, the fact is there is a lot of emotional unhealth even within the church. There are things available to us by grace, available to us through what Jesus did, available to us by the Word and the Spirit, but many times we don't take advantage of those things. So what are some of the keys to being emotionally healthy?

What are some of the symptoms of being unhealthy? I saw an article, I haven't been able to dig into the research, but it said that there's a lot of suicide, depression among older white adults, and one reason that, the primary reason or a main thing that the survey found was lack of religion. People putting aside religious faith or losing religious faith, for many it doesn't end well. So for us as people of faith, I want to share three words with you. As I was praying about this and seeking to lay out my thoughts more clearly for the show, it just jumped on me. It jumped on me that there's three categories.

Yes, yes, yes, put it all in these three categories. The words are peace and love and joy. Peace, love, joy.

Now here's what's really interesting. It struck me as a fairly new believer studying the Bible and memorizing scripture that each of these qualities in the Lord, the peace that God gives, the love that God gives, the joy that God gives, are described in one way or another as indescribable. Right, so let me start with Philippians chapter 4 where Paul writes this. I'm going to start in verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again, rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

Now this key counsel, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation in prayer and petitions with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And look at this, the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So he describes the peace that God gives us as something that transcends our understanding. Now we go to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3 and look at what Paul writes there. This is his prayer. I'm going to start in verse 14.

For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives his name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, look at this, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. So the peace of God that God gives transcends our understanding. The love of God that he has for us transcends knowledge, is beyond our understanding. And then as Peter writes in 1 Peter the first chapter, oh I'm going to start in verse 3.

These are such life-giving words. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in his great mercy. He has given us new birth into a living into a living hope to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this he says you greatly rejoice though now for a little while you you may have had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may result in praise glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him you love him and even though you do not see him now you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy for you are receiving the end result of your faith the salvation of your souls. Wow it's inexpressible and glorious joy unspeakable and full of glory in the King James that we used to sing a hymn it's joy unspeakable and full of glory I would sing it except I don't sing well but those are the words so the peace transcends our understanding the love is beyond is beyond knowledge and and the joy is inexpressible this is something that God gives us friends now here I want to speak to you as a witness as a living witness I live in the same world you live in I have the same problems to face that others have over the years right challenges in with with members of the family close or distant or financial pressure or spiritual attack or someone you love getting sick or dying now some of you have gone through things I can't imagine to be candid some of you are suffering things right now that it you can't even articulate more you can't even describe the degree of pressure that you're under all right but what I'm saying is I live in the same world I face the same demons we're all in the same world we mourn we grieve we have questions we have ups and downs in life we have pressure we have deadlines we we have heavy schedules we have commitments and I'm telling you in the midst of this you don't have to be stressed you don't have to be broken down you don't have to be fretful you don't have to you don't have to be angry I've been hurt like everybody else I've been disappointed by people I've been betrayed I've been stabbed in the back same as you right I have people that I've had to forgive same as you and of course I've had to go to people and ask forgiveness but you don't have to walk around with bitterness you don't have to walk around jaded and cynical and and hardened and and again I'm not talking to someone who may actually have some chemical imbalance or some this some actual disease that they're dealing with that is affecting their brain I'm talking in general to all of us we don't have to walk around depressed we don't have to walk around hopeless we don't have to walk around hanging our head and because it's all over even in the midst of severe loss so when my closest friends have had severe loss like the sudden tragic freak accident that takes a child from them or someone very very close to them dying of a terrible disease right or they themselves suffering terribly in their bodies so I live in the same world and I know these same people in the same world some of them who have suffered massively and they would tell you what I'm telling you that even in the worst most hopeless difficult painful situations there can be God's presence there can be peace there can be hope there can be grace there can be love so I don't want to preach at you I don't want to shout from the pulpit of my radio mic and and say come on you gotta do better now I'll do that when it comes to lifestyle choices like with diet and stuff say come on come on you can do it you can make these changes you need to you need to but but what I'm talking about today is I want to come by your side as a friend all right as an older friend for most of you I want to come by your side and and and dig down a little deeper into what makes us tick on the inside dig down a little deeper into some of the attitudes starting with stress and and the destructive negative power of stress we're going to start there we're going to talk about how to get peace in the midst of the storm and then we'll talk about the wrong attitudes destructive attitudes be it anger or bitterness or things like that and then we'll talk about the lack of joy and see if we can help get you emotionally healthier see if we can get you to a better place where you're not dependent on on meds to be to balance your emotions where you're not constantly having to go and revisit the past and try to dig things up and get you to a place of of wholeness and remember we're talking about a supernatural god at work in our lives I don't have a lot of self-help techniques that's not who I am that's not my gifting that's not my calling but I do know the lord and I do know the word and and and we're talking about a supernatural god working in our lives remember Jesus comes to heal the broken heart he doesn't just forgive our sins but he comes to make us whole and that starts on the inside all right we will be right back don't go anywhere if we talk about getting emotionally healthy it's the line of fire with your host dr michael brown get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH here again is dr michael brown thanks for joining us friends on the line of fire are you emotionally healthy if not if some things I say strike strike a chord with you like yeah yeah I need that or if they hit a nerve oh that again it's only to help that's why we're here to see you healthy thriving in the lord I want to see you fulfill your calling in god you would be blessed to hear the fruit of this ministry you would be blessed to hear so many people telling us your words gave me encouragement your words gave me hope your words caused me to hunger after god I changed my theology I'm in a better place with god it's the word of god that makes the difference it's the truth of god that makes the difference and the greater the obstacles the more the opportunities all right so let's talk about stress even though some of our lives are much easier than previous generations how about driving a car versus walk walking or riding a horse how about flying a plane rather than spending weeks out crossing the ocean how about having advanced medical care as opposed to drink some whiskey for anesthesia bite on this this piece of wood we're going to try to cut this thing out of you how about air conditioning how about refrigeration I mean we go on and on and on our methods of communication the one hand our lives are a lot easier on the other hand on the other hand uh the the constant bombardment of information the report by the second this calamity this tragedy the world is ending this is going to happen it's going to be a nuclear bomb it's climate change it's it's all over this one just got murdered and raped this it's a bombardment and the arc for many of us are constant looking at screens cell phones and the information that comes in that's not brain healthy and it just seems the pressures of life are increasing and things are more impersonal so we get really stressed and it's unhealthy to be stressed you say well now you're adding to my stress i remember nancy years back i had a physical condition and she couldn't get to the root of it see several doctors and they they began to tell her it's stress you're stressed and she said well what you're telling me is making me more stressed now by telling me i'm having this condition because i'm stressed now it's stressing me more of course that doesn't do with stress it was a potassium deficiency that when discovered then her she addressed it physically and things changed dramatically but stress is is very destructive and what do you do when you're stressed and you try to unstress well just like empty my mind look i know there are practices people practice yoga and meditation and different things and that helps with stress now let's talk about something that really helps with stress let me go back to philippians chapter four all right don't be anxious about anything so what you have to do is start with relationship with god start with really knowing the father start with i'm going to spend more time bathing myself in the truth about god bathing myself in the word of god it could be meditating on psalm 23 over and again over and again you know what it could be other key passages it could be the words of jesus in john 14 words of comfort and peace i leave with you my peace i give to you it could be other promises that god gave to israel that you can spiritually apply today of his faithfulness of his covenant keeping love it could be meditating on psalm 103 it could be saying god give me a revelation of your love your goodness when i know that i'm in right relationship with god and therefore god is for me not against me that is so profound i i mean i could rest in that mike did you see there are 50 new websites with videos each with 10 million views all attacking you if i know god's for me i just feel bad for the people being misled and i feel bad for the people attacking but for me it is well with my soul so it starts with really making a concerted determined effort to get to know the god of the bible better and to get to know the promises of the god of the bible better you know there are these calendars or these these little flip cards where there's a new scripture promise for each day of the year and i know sometimes things can be taken out of context or over simplified but i'll tell you i was i was staying at a bed and breakfast while visiting ministering in asheville a few years ago and there was one of those by the bedside in this home and so i i just started flipping verses now almost all the verses were familiar to me but it's like boom bow whoa wonderful yes god you're good so i would really encourage you to renew your mind don't focus don't start by focusing on the problem the issue my stress start by renewing your mind as to who god is when jesus says don't be anxious hey look the birds god takes care of them look at out the the beautiful the beautiful look that he made on the flowers and all of this that's how he clothes them he's going to clothe you so so start with renewing your mind as to who god is okay and to the love of the father my son-in-law ryan bruss wrote a great book living loved just you immerse yourself in that you you get yourself full of the reality of the love of god and the goodness of god and again if you're in right relationship with him and he's for you not against him if you're in open rebellion then he's against you calling you to repent but his heart is to be for us romans 8 paul asks if god is for us who can be against us so you take time you do it on a daily basis you make the effort you you you open your heart mind god i don't see it i don't feel it it's not real to me i'm reading words on the page but then i real to him you talked him about it all right and then with that perspective don't be anxious about anything but in everything with prayer and petition make your requests known to god and do it with thanksgiving so what i will do especially when i'm having extended times of prayer and i'm really going to be focusing on prayer i will try to empty myself of every single thing that would stress me out every single thing that i'm burdened with every single thing where i'm feeling extreme pressure all right and i just list them to the lord lord i'm concerned about that what about this and what's going to happen with this i get this publishing debt i don't think i can get this done i got to travel here lord i'm stressed about lord even the travel schedule here it looks like the connection is going to be tight lord this is going on with with with with a friend of ours that have this need and and i i give him everything and i thank him for his goodness and when i'm done i have peace and the peace of god which transcends all human understanding will guard your heart and mind in the messiah jesus it's real it really really works you say but did you get all the answers i don't need all the answers i just need it to give everything over do it on a daily basis do it on a moment by moment basis god i just don't know i you know my kid the way they go i think they're going to be really messed up when they get old god i don't know what's happening with our job situation lord the pressures in our church just give them over and thank him that he's good and you'll begin to see i don't even have a clue of what the answer is but i'm at peace i have that sense of peace it is the exact opposite of stress and it comes out of giving giving it all over to the lord and and if you do it you say i didn't get any peace then i say you didn't really give it over you still want to hold on to it now i'm talking about okay there's nothing i can do about this right now so i'm going to give it over to god and i've looked back over the years and been shocked shocked at something that seemed like this mess all this is so big and this is going to be the end of our ministries we never get over this hurdle the finances and and i look back months later i thought what was that this is didn't seem like a bump in the road so here's where we start it's a great way to deal with stress the peace of god ask him lord is your peace supernatural peace all right hey friends another reminder in our let's get healthy month i i am really really excited about these trivita supplements i've been using and that's why we're introducing them to you this month this let's get healthy month and and and so much of the proceeds that come in are going right back in to get this broadcast across the country just think of me not just 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lean muscle if you want to develop lean muscle something far better according to clinical studies than whey protein i mean tens of millions of dollars of studies have gone into this all kinds of human studies verifying it find out about of benefits if you work out a lot or you got to get this and the nitric oxide trust me do it for a month see what happens so here's number to call 800-811-9628 let me give that to you again 800-811-9628 tell them dr brown sent you it's the line of fire with your host dr michael brown get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH here again is dr michael brown thanks for joining us today on the line of fire as i give you a special teaching and put together in this way for the first time in my life after preaching since 1973 this is the first time i can recall getting into the subject of emotional health and breaking things down into peace love and joy all right so we've talked about distressing by recognizing the goodness of god being in right relationship with him knowing the love of the father for us expressed through jesus and with that making our requests our burdens taking them all giving them over to the lord and as a result receiving his deep supernatural peace remember it transcends understanding it's like i don't understand it but i have peace you ever had that it's like everything seems to be going crazy around me but i have this profound peace in the midst of it i can't explain it but i have it and it's real and it's not just a feeling it's god's reality saying i got this i got this so that's that's the first thing all right second thing is there are other bad attitudes that make us emotionally unhealthy unforgiveness is a big one bitterness a deep insecurity that makes us unable to trust other people there are a bunch of things that are that are unhealthy in terms of how we live how we feel relationships that that we develop but but i want to focus on a few of them in in terms of of unforgiveness bitterness anger things that that harden us things that defile us things that make us unhealthy have you ever been angry is it somebody and you're like churning on the inside that's that's not a healthy state it's one thing when the lord burdens us right but there's an unhealthy churning or you walk around with i can't believe they did that how could they do that you just walk around with that all the time it's it's i mean picture it like this you've got a beautiful bottle of of pure water just from a fresh spring and you throw mud in that dirt and that rocks and that that's what we're doing to our inner being that's what we're doing to our soul in in the process so what we have to do is receive god's love for us in a way that enables us to give it to others let me let me give you a very very simple analogy but it's gonna be very material carnal in that sense but you'll get the point all right let's just say that you've been with a company for years right and over the course of a month all the people who are less senior to you who don't walk work as hard as you all of them are called in to meet with the president of the company right and all of them are given a substantial raise so that every single one of them now makes more than you do and they just happen to tell you man i'm so excited have you heard i just got wow i'm blown away i got this raise and and with each new one you're getting more and more angry you're getting more and more bitter you're wondering about your future in the company you you are i mean you're understandably upset you've been there long you work harder you're senior and and they're all getting bonuses and raises and they're gonna make more than you they're newer they don't work as hard they're not as loyal so you got bad attitudes don't you you're you're not happy with them you like them less than you did before and you're certainly not happy with the president of the company who you're now judging left and right for his lack of judgment for his lack of insight for his lack of generosity to you and on and on and on right you got all these attitudes and then after everybody all the 30 40 other people that work there have been called in the ones under you he calls you in and says hey i just wanted to save this for last but i'm offering you the position of vice president of the company and it'll triple your salary but i've watched you for years and you're a hardest worker you're faithful you're loyal i see you're responsible to take the step will you do it suddenly you love everybody suddenly he is so wise he is so smart he is so discerning what a great guy i always knew i could trust my boss now you're happy for all the other people getting raises all right okay it's a pretty dumb illustration but you get the point don't you well it's the same thing with the lord when i know i'm blessed i rejoice with you for being blessed when i know the favor of god's on me i can rejoice with you for the favor of god the son your life when when i know that that god is going to bless me with his goodness and then in that sense my future is bright then then those that attack me in the postman i feel bad for them but if they're prospering and they're succeeding it's my loss and my hurt that guy split my church and he took off with all my people and i'm left with nothing and he hurt me he you have no idea how deeply he hurt me and i will never forgive him for what he did that was a sin against god and me and the people of god and then god shows you actually the lord was behind that because that work was really way uh uh beneath what god called you to do god wants you to reach all these millions over here and have a ministry that was 10 times more effective so that was all for the people's good and for your good suddenly your perspective changes and you call this person say oh i'm so sorry i spoke badly of you i judged you in my heart please forgive me and and i just want to send a video blessing the people right everything changes in your perspective oh friend it's so real it is so real so when when you know the love of god let's go deeper how much has he forgiven you how deeply has he forgiven you how comprehensively has he forgiven you how often does he bring up your past to you what about the sins that nobody knows about except you and god did he forgive those too what about the worst thoughts you ever thought did he forgive those what about those shameful acts that if if we we put them on a screen right now you'd run out of the room or those shameful thoughts that maybe you just thought yesterday well what about what about those did he forgive those how deeply how comprehensively and and when you come to to pray to pray lord i'm so sorry i blew it again i was just mean to my wife or my husband short with the kids god i just you know this at work i just nasty to people lord forgive me wash me cleanse me he doesn't say well let me think about it for a while because that's i'm really disappointed in you no when you come sincerely repenting asking for forgiveness he he does he forgives us in a salvific way once for all at the cross then a relational way in an ongoing way that's how he does it i i will not explain this the way nancy does so i want to say that she would do a much better job of saying it than i did but but years back during a time where she was spending every waking hour of the day and night literally seeking god and prayer and and the word i'm i'm literally telling you if if she wasn't brushing her teeth or having a meal or something she was she was on her knees she was sitting she was reading the word and praying hour by hour by hour in the midst of this an old friend that we had been separated from an old friend of the family that we felt had really sinned against us reached out to her hey i'm going to be in your neighborhood they hadn't seen each other for seven years i'm going to be in your neighborhood and i'd love to see you and she's like hey i'm i don't want to see you i forgave you i'm good i don't want to see you and then god began to deal with her well how did i forgive you look up the word forgiveness and how did i forgive you again i'm not explaining it nearly as powerfully as nancy would but god absolutely amazingly did something in her heart with a profound love for this old friend and when they met not a word came up about the past but later that day her husband called another old friend and said and said what did your wife do to my wife she all she can do is cry she can't even talk she's just crying well they never brought up a word about the past but nancy was so full of the love of god it just touched her just touched her i have found there is such profound beauty and release in forgiving from the heart there are people who have have done me harm in certain ways over the years and when i've gotten before the lord i've genuinely prayed for god's best for them because i know god's with me and i know his hand is on my life and ultimately all will be well and i pray for god's best for them there are people who have whole websites attacking me or multiple videos attacking me brothers in the lord i pray for them i get on my knees and i pray for for god's blessing and god's best on their lives and and then wherever they have a blind spot or a missing something show them wherever they're on track reaffirm that and then i pray the exact same thing for me where i have a blind spot the same thing because we're we're all just little human beings in the presence of a perfect holy god forgive as you have been forgiven i want to read the words of jesus to you these are holy words of our savior all right and and let them penetrate let them go deep into your heart into your mind into your spirit so that you you're enriched by them i'm going to be reading from luke 6 beginning in verse 27 but you are listening i say love your enemies do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you pray for those who mistreat you if someone slaps you on one cheek turn to them the other also if someone takes your coat do not withhold your shirt for them give to everyone who asks you and if anyone takes what belongs to do not demand it back do to others as you would have them do to you if you love those who love you what credit is that to you even sinners love those who love them if you do good to those who are good to you what credit is that to you even sinners do that and if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment what credit is that you even sinners lend to sinners expecting repaid in full but love your enemies do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back then your reward will be great and you will be children of the most high because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked be merciful just as your father is merciful oh that's the calling that's the standard that's the guideline be merciful just as your father is merciful so you bathe yourself in those spiritual realities you say god i'm saying with my mind my heart's struggling but i forgive this one and you humble yourself and you get forgiven so being reconciled removes a lot of stress removes a lot of pressure and then with that with the love of god in you you're going to have more self-control i used to have a horrific temper before i was saved then i battled with this a new believer i mean a vicious ugly horrific temper i was known for it and and over the years spending time before god i would daily for years meditate on first corinthians 13 and pray those words of myself the words of love someone just did it i mean i hear this all the time dr brown you're so gracious dr brown you're so gracious trust trust me trust me trust me that's the work of the holy spirit in my heart and my life that's the grace of god at work so we get rid of the bitterness get rid of the anger we get rid of the the unforgiveness we get rid of that constant fighting fighting fighting fighting and peace comes in love comes in and this is fruit of the spirit right as we commune with god and the holy spirit works in our lives love peace joy like these fundamental aspects of the fruit of the spirit and our lives absolutely thank you friend you can be far more emotionally healthy than you've ever been to put these simple biblical practices into your life all right we come back talking about joy it's the line of fire with your host dr michael brown get on the line of fire by calling 866-34 truth here again is dr michael brown what's written in psalm 16 in your presence is fullness of joy what's written in nehemiah 8 the joy of the lord is your strength and something about joy struck me some years ago that one of the fundamental things that happens to us when the joy of the lord floods our hearts is this realization everything's gonna be all right even if we face calamity hardship have to go through dark days everything is going to be all right it is that realization eternally you're gonna be with the lord everything is going to be all right it is that realization that comes with the release and triggers that release of profound joy you know it's it's like a mother with a child the child's crying and nobody likes me nobody wants to play with me and that that that mom knows she went through it with her other kids the same way and they all turned out great with plenty of friends and she says hey look think of tommy think think of think of annie think think of think of james come on look at all the friends they have it's going to be the exact same thing in fact they cried in my arms too when they were younger and they said the same thing look at all the friends they have and suddenly the kids feeling better because there's there's that hope it's that lack of hope that triggers a lot of our our our sadness our hopelessness obviously lack of hope triggers our business depression and again i'm not talking about something that is clinical in terms of depression i'm talking about that which is just in our own emotions and life i understand there can be some chemical issue or something like that or some disease of some kind causing depression so i'm not saying that that you don't address those aspects but i am saying that god can super naturally take that away too i am saying god can do what no medicine can do and god can do what no surgeon can do and god can do what what no program can do because he is god and if we are walking in divine peace and that has been something very deep in my life for many many years not not constantly but the great great bulk of my life especially as i'm in good communion with god is marked by a deep sense of peace and then that love it drives out the bitterness the anger and those wrong defiling destructive attitudes that that that love and that's something that was so real to me the love of god the love of god the goodness of god is so real to me and and because of that it changes my whole perspective and i know as you're listening to me it's contagious i know as you're listening you're you're catching some of that you're getting some of that and and then joy inexpressible and glorious joy read through philippians over and over lord you say to rejoice but i don't feel anything i'm down i'm bothered i'm burdened up i'm going to rejoice how do you i'm going to start praising god i'm going to start thanking god regardless of how i feel i'm going to do what i have power to do lord you're good and your mercy endures forever lord you're faithful lord i thank you for sending jesus to die for me i thank you for being patient with me you begin to thank him for different things at a certain point it will click in with the emotions at a certain point the mind and the heart will unite again you meditate on some of these glorious passages like psalm 103 you speak them out loud until that spiritual reality dominates your own life dominates your own heart your mind your soul you you you take these things in on a regular basis and then you worship what are your favorite worship songs and find some upbeat praise songs that you really like because they have a special joy release just like the the deep worship songs release you into a deeper intimacy and an adoration of god the the praise songs the upbeat praise songs that they release you into a joy and with that joy yes faith rises oh come on it happens you know in my own life the joy of the lord has had a profound role many of you know my testimony but just to remind you i first went to a church service any church because i was raised in a jewish home i first went to a church service in august of 1971 and the goal was to show my two best friends who played in a band with me uh the bass player the guitar player who who would come on their way to coming to faith and me the drummer i wanted to show them that this this church stuff was stupid faith is stupid and just you know come on we got a band let's get back to partying and all of this we're going to be rock stars etcetera so so i go there the first time and the people were so nice and kind and gracious to me you know this guy long hair raunchy looking you know and bad attitude they were nice just like all right fine they have their religion i have my religion whatever you know then november 12th i went back god god was convicting me of sin i didn't realize it was conviction yet but he was dealing with me about some things in my life so november 12th i went back to a service at the end of the service i don't remember what the pastor spoke on i don't remember being impacted by what he spoke on at the end of the service the pastor said if there's anyone here who wants to receive the lord you know raise your hand you know every head bowed raise your hand so my friend nudges me my best friend bass player and he says now yeah you should do this and i'm thinking you know what i think i'm going to do it because all these people now i know they're all praying for me i'm like the really bad sinner they're they're they're really going to get a kick out of this you know this guy came and received jesus it was just a joke to me you know so i walk forward you know if you raise your hand come forward so i was i think there was a younger girl also that came forward if i remember and um repeat this after me pastor says so as i'm saying the words i remember my friends have been praying for me and talking me for months back and forth talking talking talking talking and the gospel has been getting in more than i realize so he has me confessing my sin okay that's real enough i know no one's arguing that that i'm a pretty bad guy um and uh you know i believe jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead i thought you know i believe this i actually do believe it and then you know i i promised to live for you the rest of my life i thought nope i'm not there yet and the pastor said did you mean that and i looked at him and said yes i lied right great great thing to do right church i lied uh and he said well you know i believe you you know and then he said hey everybody let's come up and pray for these people and so i just said okay so i'm standing there with these people you know behind me around me whatever i'm kind of oblivious to them i said god i you know when i go home i'm getting high you know that you know i'm i'm gonna smoke pcp angel dust and i would do these massive quantities i was known as drug baron iron man because the massive quantities of drugs i used i said you know i'm gonna smoke this and then shoot shoot cocaine uh it was the new drug had just come in town i bought a lot because i would deal it as well had this guitar case where my friend would keep his guitar practicing with our band at my house with drums and our equipment and it was a lot of cocaine in there that we just hide it and you know unlikely place some would look and anyway i said god you know when i get home i'm doing this if you don't want me to don't let have any effect so like i'm brand new the dumb prayer to pray but i'm brand new so you know went home did the stuff no effect it's like okay something's going on here so i wrestled for five weeks back and forth back and forth one day going to church next day shooting heroin one day going to church next day getting high all day different ways back and forth back and forth and coming under increasing conviction for my life swore off alcohol okay i'm not going to drink anymore that's that's wrong i shouldn't do that so now i go back i can't wait to get to the service december 1771 just five weeks later and remember it's i don't know 40 50 people there little italian pentecostal church pastor's wife playing piano sometimes her brother-in-law would be playing guitar used to be a jazz guitarist he'd be there like you know quietly playing in the background but it was just she's playing the piano kind of upbeat way but she's playing the old hymns and we would start we we would start we'd stand and sing the first time sit down sing two more and that was normally the the the singing time then offering testimonies and we may go back to worship for a little while otherwise the message then we go to the altar and pray as we're singing these hymns i begin to experience a joy i've never experienced an inexpressible and glorious joy and i said to myself this must be what they talk about what they call the joy of the lord this must be it this must be it and suddenly i i surveyed everything in my life in the past you know a drug high a music high a friendship high a sports high and i thought this is of a different quality this must be what they call the joy of the lord and suddenly i had this mental picture i was filthy from head to toe the blood of jesus washed me clean jesus put these beautiful white robes on me and now i was going back and playing in the mud and right then so it was the joy of the lord that revealed the love of god to me right then i said lord i will never put a needle in my arm again december 1771 free from that moment on no withdrawal no nothing free from that moment on two days after that i said god i'll never get high again in any other way and that's the end of the story by the grace and power of god the joy of the lord is your strength it banishes is the hopelessness and depression and the fears because he's good he's with me goes back to that foundation where we started so look at these things consider them chew on them to find a greater place of emotional health i walk in this this is my life ask my family ask those close to me it is by god's grace and then one last thing because i have so been enjoying these health supplements that have supplemented now my healthy lifestyle and healthy eating check out the special offer in fact again it's best to call in because you get the the the the the call center they can they can answer your questions they can tell you about the benefits about myo health about the amino acids even give you a free book that'll tell you more about it than millions of 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