If you’re anything like me, then when you get in a bad mood you tend to stay there. It’s easy to feel trapped in negativity, so much so that even when you are aware of it and know that you’re only a smile away from getting out of it, some stubborn part of us deep inside refuses to go there. This has happened to me countless times and it can be a very debilitating thing.
One morning I happened to wake up in one of these moods, where everything in the world sets you on edge and joy is nowhere to be found. As it would turn out, it was Sunday. So a few hours later I am sitting in a worship service, furious for absolutely no reason. It seemed like there was nothing in the world that could pull me out of the anger that I was stewing in. In fact, everything that I tried only seemed to make me angrier. The mere fact that I was angry made me angrier, which in turn made me angrier, which in turn made me angrier. Ever been there?
Well God used the situation to teach me about the power of His word. The word of God is powerful, and that is something that I have believed and known for at least a few years now. But, no matter how well I know it in my head, experiencing it never ceases to amaze me. So as I sat in that church, hating everything, someone went up on stage and read Ephesians 6:12
The moment that they finished reading that verse the first thing that came to my mind was John 8:31-32
Instantly it felt as though hundreds of pounds of chains fell off of me. The rest of the day I was at peace and was filled with joy.
The truth is that there is such a thing as spiritual warfare and every battle that we fight is a spiritual battle. Sometimes it doesn’t seem that way, but in that verse Paul teaches us to look beneath the surface. We don’t fight against bad moods or unwelcomed feelings, we fight against the lies that feed and sustain them. Once we realize this, that the bullets in the gun pointed at us are just blanks, we are free to walk away. The bad mood starts from the lie that today will hold nothing and is pointless. It says the same lie about yesterday and tomorrow and eventually it will have you convinced that your entire life is nothing more than a waste and that you yourself are a waste. This is not the truth. But when we abide in Jesus words we will know the truth, and the truth will set us free.
