I love when I have the opportunity to take solo road trips. I can stop and use the facilities as many times as I need/want to, I can play whatever radio station on pandora that I want, or I can use the opportunity to listen to my Joyce Meyer teaching cds without hearing any complaints from other passengers.  On my latest trip, I did a little of all three and had no issues with it and my cd of choice was Alive~Freedom to Live Again.

Here is a brief overview of the teaching.

“So many of us are sick of the roller coaster of emotions that we experience on a daily basis—an endless ride driven by hurt, anger, frustration, misunderstandings, mistreatment, desperation….you name it. Many of these emotions are derived from things in our past—the way we were raised or treated or a devastating heartache we experienced. We try to hide it, to get over it, fake it and smile, when inside we’re screaming with frustration, striving to make it through the day without breaking down and showing our pain. But we can get off this ride. We’re not stuck here. Jesus gives us freedom from our burdens and promises us new life in HIM, full of joy and abundance.”

I relate the daily roller coster to this.  I think we all have had that boss that drives us crazy or makes impossible demands.  That co-worker that no matter how nice we try to be is still rude and condesending.  Maybe it’s that blunt friend that is lacking that filter over her mouth and says things that hurt our feelings. It also could be a random encounter with someone that says something that instantly triggers the pain of our past and sends us spiraling back down into a place we thought was long gone.

Joyce said this one time and quite possibly many times, “God is more interested in changing you than changing your circumstances.”  And until we fully comprehend this, we will keep taking this ride over and over and over until we erupt like a volcano and leave those affected to clean up the mess.

Here are a few quotes that can help decipher if you have truly gotten off the roller coaster ride or emotions.

“The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispostions and not our circumstances.” ~ Martha Washington
 
” Peace – It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.” ~ Unknown

“I can be changed by what happens to me. I refuse to be reduced by it.” ~ Maya Angelou

I realize that listening to a teaching cd or reading these quotes does not automatically heal us in this area, but it does provide a foundation and hopefully a realization that something has got to change.

1 Corinthians 13:11 (Amplified) says, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.”

Have you reached spiritual maturity or are you still acting like a child?