Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Emotional Bullying


 


Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.

 

The Lord dropped something into my spirit a few years ago and I’m reminded of it today.  Don’t let the enemy bully you in your emotions.

One thing I’ve learned in my 52 years is that many people who are bullies as children do not grow out of that behavior into adulthood, and people who tend to be easy targets for bullies don’t always grow out of that tendency into adulthood. You can find bullies and victims of bullying even in the workplace as adults.

When discussing bullies one thing that is usually said still rings true, “They do you that way because they know they can. As long as they can get away with it by you not standing up to them, they will continue to bully you. As long as they can get a rise, a reaction out of you they will continue to entertain themselves with your reactions.” Something else I’ve learned about bullies is that when you stand up to them, stand up for yourself, even if you “lose” the fight, you’ll still earn their respect and they will often find someone who will remain the victim.

When you think about it, where do you think the behavior originates from?  God, or the devil? So when we recognize the author of that behavior we can better see how the enemy will do the same thing to us emotionally. 

He knows that he can say certain things, cause certain things to happen, use people to say or do certain things to get a rise or reaction out of us.  When we show him that at the least sign of something we don’t like we resort to complaining and self-pity, [Proverbs 24:10] he learns how to perfectly time his attacks and with every attack he adds in a special little something extra: Some negative suggestion that he whispers to you so you can start repeating it in your frustration. As you agree with him in your heart and with your words you become a perfect target for his bullying. Not resulting in black eyes or other physical bruises, but in your emotions, dragging you down every time you think you might be about to see some type of daylight.  Learn to FIGHT. SPEAK UP. STAND UP. GUARD YOUR HEART BY KEEPING A HANDLE ON YOUR EMOTIONS. There’s nothing new under the sun. Everybody is dealing with mess they’d rather not deal with. Put on your big girl panties or big boy boxers and put your spiritual dukes up and fight. Use that power of life and death that’s in your tongue and come out of the role of being a victim to the devil’s bullying.

I saw a quote that said, “I got hated on for being myself, so I started hating myself”. When you think about it, doesn’t that describe the enemy of your soul?  He hates you simply because of who you are! A child of the Most High God, a Royal Priesthood, an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. You’re on your way to the place he got kicked out of when he showed his tail. You’ve been promoted into the spot that was left vacant when he lost his position in heaven. Of course he hates your guts and his mission is to convince you to hate yourself just as much by trying to convince you through life’s trials and the lies he tells you about yourself. He wants to badger you to the point that you feel like this is just the way it is, or that you somehow deserve or are the cause of the abuse, so you just join his club. Don’t let him do that to you! He’s doing it because you allow it. He’s doing it simply because he can. It may sound like I too, am accusing you for what he’s doing to you. I understand that feeling. I used to feel that way at first, but it’s really not the case. I’m simply shedding a light on the trick he’s been playing on you and getting the same results over and over. [Hosea 4:6] [2 Corinthians 2:11] If he can keep your spiritual eyes black, blue and swollen shut from his verbal beatings they will never be opened to see him for what he is. If he can keep your attention focused on what he is saying instead of that God has said about you, you will never have your faith increased by hearing the actual truth about who you are.

 
So check yourself before he makes you wreck yourself.  Check your emotions. What are you feeling? What are you hearing when you feel certain things in your emotions?  The things that you are hearing, are they in line with how God says He feels about you in His Word in scriptures like [Jeremiah 29:11] or are they more in line with what the Word says about what the enemy wants to do [John 10:10]? Are you experiencing anxiety or peace? Do you feel abandoned, or loved?  It’s really simple. As we begin to retrain ourselves to think and speak according the Word we will find ourselves spending less time entertaining what the enemy is doing and being entertainment for the enemy, and more time walking in complete victory. 

 


 
















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