Recovery For Abused Women

“Empowering the abused woman to recover with God's truth"

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:6-9

 

This is Part 2 of the message, “Renew YOUR Mind with God’s Word!" Part 1.  It is another resource that explains what happens in our emotional health. This article, “Amygdala Hijack: When Emotion Takes Over,” written by Nancy Moyer,..., will explain why we have triggers from our bad experiences.

My commentary from the article - you can read the complete article by clicking here or the link above on the title:

If we encounter a situation that is similar to a bad experience we had, whether years ago or recently, the amygdala remembers the previous bad experience, and immediately throws us into the “fight or flight” mode. In this mode, all logic goes out the window - we begin to feel the same way we felt, when that bad thing originally happened to us - the current event has “triggered” those memories! If the event was bad enough to cause us trauma, especially, it left an imprint in our amygdala of what happened. We all view trauma differently - what is traumatic for me, may not be traumatic for you or vice versa. Therefore, we should NEVER tell someone to “get over it,” or they shouldn’t be feeling a certain way, or “oh, that wasn’t THAT bad,” that is not our place - if we cannot support a person who is going through something, let’s  not say anything!! To view a video explanation of the amygdala’s role in our emotions, click here.

This is why it is so very important, when we have something bad, traumatic, happen to us, to not only pray, but to seek professional help. If that thing that happened to us was bad enough to cause us to fall apart, we need professional help – we cannot pretend it did not happen. When we pretend something did not hurt us, or bothered us in any way when it did, we are opening ourselves up for the devil to come in; giving place to the devil to bring fear, anxiety, and stress into our lives and cause us to later have triggers of that event! We are to take authority Jesus gave us in Luke 10:19, over EVERYTHING that comes to hinder us in ANYWAY; that comes to keep us from walking in our God given purpose (Romans 8:29-30)!! Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

Remember, the devil has NO power over us (Jesus HAS ALREADY DEFEATED satan, and given us power and authority over him), UNLESS, we give him our power to use against us, like Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden; give him access into our lives (Luke 10:19; John 16:33; Ephesians 4:26-27; Genesis 2:4-3:24).

We MUST deal with what happens to us; start by DECIDING to forgive the person(s) who hurt us, and God WILL help us,  then get it out in the open by talking with someone, and then praying against any negative affect of that event, to stop it from causing us problems later.

Once we settle that thing in ourselves, through forgiveness, prayer, talking it out, and putting the Word of God in our hearts, so we can KNOW God’s love for us, and that He is with us, therefore NO ONE or NOTHING can harm us, then if a similar bad situation happens to us, our amygdala will not throw us into the “fight or fight” mode.

Hence, stopping the spirit of fear, from gaining access to our emotions which God DID NOT give us, and once fear is stopped, this will allow the gifts of love, power, and a sound mind, to flood our being, calming our emotions down - then our frontal lobes will take over, causing us to think clearly, rational, and make wise decisions, in that moment (2 Timothy 1:7).

Here are quotes from the article, “Amygdala Hijack: When Emotion Takes Over,” written by Nancy Moyer,..., which explains how the amygdala, the “fight or flight” system, can override the frontal lobe of the brain:

“The frontal lobes are the two large areas at the front of your brain. They’re part of the cerebral cortex, which is a newer, rational, and more advanced brain system. This is where thinking, reasoning, decision-making, and planning happen. The frontal lobes allow you to process and think about your emotions. You can then manage these emotions and determine a logical response. Unlike the automatic response of the amygdala, the response to fear from your frontal lobes is consciously controlled by you. When you sense danger is present, your amygdala wants to automatically activate the fight-or-flight response immediately. However, at the same time, your frontal lobes are processing the information to determine if danger really is present and the most logical response to it. When the threat is mild or moderate, the frontal lobes override the amygdala, and you respond in the most rational, appropriate way. However, when the threat is strong, the amygdala acts quickly. It may overpower the frontal lobes, automatically triggering the fight-or-flight response. The fight-or-flight response was appropriate for early humans because of threats of physical harm. Today, there are far fewer physical threats, but there are a lot of psychological threats caused by the pressures and stresses of modern life. When stress makes you feel strong anger, aggression, or fear, the fight-or-flight response is activated. It often results in a sudden, illogical, and irrational overreaction to the situation. You may even regret your reaction later.”

Again, this shows that we MUST renew our minds with the Word of God (Romans 12:2), so we can allow the peace of God to guard our hearts and minds, “AS WE LIVE IN CHRIST JESUS” (Philippians 4:7; John 16:33)!! Renewing our minds with God’s Word will help us get the Word in our hearts, so we can validate God’s for us (convince our hearts of God’s love for us, so HIS peace can guard our hearts and mind), which in turn, will drive out ALL fears, stress, anxiety, etc., causing the amygdala not to response negatively, resetting it so it can function like God originally designed and purposed it to function!! Only then, will we be able to be FULL of God’s peace, KNOW (subconscious mind will come in agreement/alignment with our conscience mind) God’s goodness, and His love for us. Then we will not only think God love us, but that thought will move from our heads to our hearts, and we will have fellowship with God and then be able to love Him with ALL our hearts, ALL of our souls, ALL our might, and love our neighbors as ourselves, living out  the ABUNDANT LIFE Jesus died to give us!!

A great resource about the Gospel of Peace, is by Dr. Jim Richards titled, “The Gospel of Peace.” Dr. Richards also has a series, and book, by the same title.

Click here for PDF version of message

God’s Blessings to you all and your families!!

Rev. Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks

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