Weeding Out Negativity: A 4-Day Thought DetoxSample

Are there weeds in your garden?

Contrary to what you may believe, singlehood is not a problem. Our perspective towards singlehood causes us to view it as such. This is why we must build our faith by daily reading, instilling, and applying God’s word into our souls. Doing so will remind us that God is sovereign. The resistance I encounter in walking towards Christ may surprise me, but not to Him. He’s got all my circumstances under His control (1 Cor 10:1). The choice is up to me as to whether I’ll believe Him. Christ is not going to save me unless I ask for His help. Unfortunately, so many people end up drowning in their problems (real and imagined) because they allow fear to get in the way of asking God for His help.

Being afraid is a blessing and a curse. When properly channeled, it can protect us, help us realize when we’re in danger, and keep us from making mistakes. When we’re conscientious of our surroundings, we don’t experience any unnecessary trouble. We don’t associate with the wrong people or ignore God’s signals when He warns us that we shouldn’t be at a specific place or participate in a particular activity.

Most of the time, when we experience fear, we’re tapping into the curse aspect of fear. We allow fear to give us a significant case of analysis paralysis. We’re too scared to decide because we’re afraid it will be wrong. We don’t want to make a mistake (Rom 8:28). This fear can prevent us from recognizing that God already has the solution to our problems, but we won’t be able to access the answer until we have demonstrated that we trust Him. Our faith activates God’s help to allow us to see that the solutions to our problems were often right before us–we just couldn’t see them.

The main reason is that God’s ideas and timing often don’t align with our desires. We want what we want when we want it. Yet, God wants to give us what we need, not necessarily what we want, especially if He knows we cannot handle that desire. In this case, the misguided belief is that we must have a husband. Our desire to remove the issue causing us fear and discomfort (not having a husband) is more important to us. The time we have to wait for God to provide us with the outcome we desire will, without a doubt, cause us unnecessary friction if we fail to embody the attributes of Christ while we wait on Him.

The delay we experience in God answering our prayers is for many reasons. God may point us toward unaddressed sin, developing us in weak areas, clearing away obstacles we don’t see, or provide us the much-needed time to realize our “desire” was a wolf in sheep’s clothing (Matt 7:15). Being impatient will place us in a position to always make the wrong decision. This will cause us to experience confusion and leave us susceptible to allowing the wrong people in our lives and searching for peace in all the wrong places. Now, since I figured out what was holding me back from being ALL in with God, I could identify the events and behavior that contributed to my negligence in maintaining my garden.

Reflection Questions

Why do some people view singlehood as a problem?

What keeps people from asking God for help?

What prevents us from seeing God’s solution to our problems?

What are some of the reasons that we experience delays in God answering our prayers?