Faith is the tether

Our postulate for today-

Faith is the tether that attaches us to home, love, light, and God. But, is yours attached? It is your choice.

Our inward states of stress such as sadness, anger, unhappiness, or pain, incline us to move towards habits and addictions to lessen the feelings of ‘bad.’ We choose instant gratification in place of pain.

What is the problem with that?

We do this to enhance pleasure, but in the long term, we experience more pain and less pleasure. It is not a sustainable life plan.

We have spoken before about the 7-steps for moving past these temptations and changing the channel on our thoughts and feelings.

When I talk about emotional wellbeing, I am really talking about spirituality. I believe there’s so much overlap here, especially if we look at wellbeing from a scriptural perspective. It has taken me all my life to figure these things out.

So, how does this relate to what I want to speak to you about today?

We have a tether that attaches us to God and it is called faith. As long as I am attached, I am safe.

That does not mean that temptation won’t come knocking. Satan can speak to us in our own voices and trick us into thinking these are our own thoughts. However, nothing bad can happen as long as I stay tethered.

The only way this tether can become unattached is by our own choice.

I always imagine an umbrella. Under it sits love, trust, hope, and everything good. A tether then roots this umbrella to our home base to keep us feeling this sense of grounding.

Imagine a set of circumstances in green and red.

1. When our home base is in love, HOME BASE in love – LOVE LIGHT TRUTH SAFETY SIGNIFICANCE SECURITY. THIS INCREASES OUR ABILITY TO FEEL GROUNDED AND ELIMINATE AND OFFSET PAIN BECAUSE WE HAVE PEACE AND POSITIVELY PROGRAMMED. THAT TRIGGER THEN DOES NOT KICK US INTO PAIN-PLEASURE. WE REMAIN GRATEFUL AND TETHERED. We are less likely to move towards habits and addictions.

2. Negative programming In red, our home base is rooted in pain. We are far more likely to make bad choices for ourselves and untether ourselves to reach for the habits and addictions which will ultimately bring us pain. We are willing to unhook our tether to do so. It comes from a place of anxiety and fear in the world.

So what is the solution? We need to repent, confess, pray...and reattach our tether.

A critical moment decision is what we come back to every day.

When I was a little kid, I was in the park and someone had a radio-controlled airplane. We tried to fly the plane toward a bridge that was pretty far away and when we tried, the plane crashed because it had flown out of range.

This tether reminds me of that. It is like the radio-controlled plane that crashes when it moves out of range.

When we detach our tether to go and explore, we get lost and, ultimately, lose sight of ourselves.

God’s solution is to pay for everything we need to provide a place for us to tether to. It is our choice as to whether we stay attached.

It all comes down to this-

Do you feel peace or fear?

If you feel peace, you are likely to choose Him. Faith, hope, trust, belief.

If you feel fear, you will always feel greatly tempted to unhook yourself and seek pleasure.

And ultimately – resentment, fear, pain, anxiety, and loss.

Where are you? Are you tethered? If so, you should be feeling peace.

Are you feeling fearful? If so, you have unhooked that tether.

At that critical moment of decision-making, ask God for help. It is your choice. You can do the inner healing work on your home base to make it a positive place, but we also need to plug into the correct source for ourselves- a place of love and hope and not a place of anxiety, fear, and pain.

We don’t want our plane to crash, so we need to plug into the love of God and reattach that tether.