It's All Psychological

What is in our mind can affect what is real, but it doesn't have to.

I was just watching The Twilight Zone with my family. Almost all of the old TV episodes teach awesome moral lessons... but sometimes they also leave you with an edgy, creepy feeling. We were just watching the Twilight Zone movie from the 60s or 70s, and man, the 3rd story is freaky!! I mean, when I think about it, it's totally not; it's about a boy whose every wish comes true. If he wishes to eat ice cream for dinner, he gets his way; if he wishes his sister would shut up, she literally becomes mouthless. Everyone around him is terrified of displeasing him. The main character, a kind young school teacher he befriended, eventually convinces him to let her teach him only to use it for good. Moral of the story? Be careful what you wish for. So true! - let God be God, He's the only one who could ever handle it!

But that's not what's forefront on my mind tonight. I was mostly thinking about the icky, creepy feeling that story gave me; it wasn't the story itself as much as how it was done. Everything from the music to the crooked angle shots to the storyline was trying to make you feel fear.

Let's talk about fear. It can be amusing to scare ourselves - that's the draw of rollercoasters and horror films. But we all have our own limitations. Sometimes we let ourselves go further than we would like to be scared, if we really thought about it. There's being startled, and real terror, and several feelings in between.

Sometimes I feel so afraid when there’s absolutely nothing to be scared of. After I got up from the couch tonight, I didn’t particularly want to be alone in the dark! What made tonight different from any other night? My emotions. My thoughts.

Thoughts can affect our reality. But they don’t have to. My thoughts totally affected how I felt tonight, and made my environment entirely different than they could have been if I had watched an episode of the Flintstones instead. But my thoughts don’t create monsters where there are none… they only seem to. And that makes them, in a sense, “real” to my mind. My psyche – and my body tension – react to these perceptions.

I believe in the supernatural. I believe negative forces can take advantage of my susceptible brain and cause fear in my heart to exponentially increase where, before, I felt none. But I also believe that there are positive forces – angels, and the Holy Spirit – that are way more powerful, and by speaking the TRUTH over my life (see a previous post, Never Fear), speaking the Word of God aloud, especially, the lies will totally lose any power they would otherwise have had over me. My heart is instantly calmed when I really dwell on verses like, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27:1) and “I will not fear, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies (I feast and they gaze on powerless!)” from Psalm 23. “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because He trusts in You.” (Isaiah 40 something, I think.)

What do you fear? Are you letting ungrounded fears affect your reality? They don’t need to. Discover the Truth for yourself, and don’t let negative influences or emotions affect your life!

- Kay