Emotions are powerful, either pushing us forward or pressing us down.  

Recently I woke in the early morning hours overcome with certain emotions I’ve wrestled with for years and losing every time.  But this time something was different. 

Instead of trying to reason with them, dismiss them or avoid them I did something I’ve never done before.  I embraced them. 

Rather than running from them or reaching for a distracting coping mechanism. I invited these draining emotions to sit because if I’m ever going to move beyond them I need to confront them.

Plus, I’m tired of running from emotions that stalk me, lurking around just looking for an opportunity to wreck my day and leave me literally exhausted.

Emotions give life or take life, they provide energy or steal it.  

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my energy drainers is expectations. 

Unmet expectations lead to disappointment, resentment and anger. Relationships, circumstances and events that failed my expectations were stealing my energy. Lots of it.

Expecting others to respond in a certain way is simply setting ourselves up for a major let down.  

Unchecked emotions are one of the greatest energy thieves.

Left to simmer and stew, they root themselves so deeply in the heart infecting it until it’s so diseased and unable to hold any love, joy, peace or hope. 

Temporary band-aids like online shopping or scrolling are short-lived and destructive in their own way – costing us more than they are giving.

Your emotional energy thieves may be different but they all have the same goal and that is to steal, kill and destroy your energy. 

Why?  Because the enemy knows you need energy to remain patient and hopeful in trying times, to extend grace when you’ve been wounded, to keep believing for the best even when circumstances give you every reason not to. 

He knows you need energy to start over when your marriage has ended, to try again when you fail at losing weight or any other goal, to plan your comeback even when you are in the middle of your setback. 

The best way to exhaust your body is to first exhaust your mind.  

Satan knows this so he uses emotional energy thieves as his weapon of choice to keep you confused, in reactionary mode, angry, resentful, worried, unable to make wise decisions and in a mental fog that keeps you distracted and disoriented.  

I know this because I’ve lived it.

The emotions angering, triggering, depleting us or infecting our hearts must be confronted before they can be changed.

The energy we need physically is determined by the energy flowing from our hearts and into our minds.

We are told to protect our hearts because it’s the source of our energy.

From the heart comes our thoughts and words leading to actions that will either energize or drain us.

If you want more energy, begin within.

That may require facing hard situations, difficult people and even taking ownership of your role in your energy drainers.

I chose to expect others to respond the way I wanted. Owning that meant I could change my choice and that’s very freeing!

Ownership is where you begin to take back your life and your power!

Figure out your energy thieves then make it your goal to take your energy back. But don’t attempt to do it alone. It won’t work and if it does it’s short lived.

Let God go before you leading the way. He can and He will! Right now. Right where you are.

Sandra Hubbard

WORD WISDOM

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Prov 4:23

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Luke 6:45

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Rom 12:2

 For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he . . .Prov 23:7