Christ Care Program
New Hope Lutheran Church
Table of Contents
Lesson 1 Understanding Our Emotions
Lesson 2 Self Image, God’s Image
Lesson 3 Healing of Anger, Disappointment, Bitterness
Lesson 4 Forgiveness
Lesson 5 Abiding in Jesus
Christ Care Program
1. The Christ Care program is Bible based; God does the healing and changing of our lives.
2. The Encourager is not a therapist, psychiatrist or psychologist. Encouragers receive their gifts from God; they are qualified, equipped and commissioned by their Church.
3. There are no fees. Donations can be given to New Hope Church.
4. Meetings are once per week.
5. Anything discussed between the Encourager and the person receiving help is strictly confidential, unless the Encourager suspects that the person may currently endangered by abuse, or if the person being helped is a danger to themselves or others.
Requirements for help in the Healing Process;
1. You need to tell the Encourager the complete truth.
2. You must have a willing and open heart for healing to take place.
3. If you are not able to keep your appointment, please call ahead of time.
DATE: ______
SIGNATURE: ______
(Participant)
SIGNATURE: ______
(Encourager)
Christ Care
Lesson 1 Understanding our emotions
The Bible says that we should:
Ø Face our emotions honestly.
Ø Learn to share our emotions with others. Allow yourself to be emotional. Take note of the way you feel. Keep a journal of your feelings if you like to write or make a mental note. Did something cause you to have these emotions? If so, what? Why?
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CHALLANGES
God is always calling us to grow more like His Son Jesus Christ. We need to pinpoint, as best we can, the areas in which we believe God is challenging, stretching, molding, and calling us to understand what God wants for us in our lives.
Read James 1:22-25
This reading challenges us to be doers of His Word, not just hearers only. In order to heal, it isn’t enough to just note our insights, recall our experiences and share our emotions. We must apply what we learn FROM THE BIBLE to our lives in order to be healed.
How?
Ø By reading God’s Word
Ø Feed upon God’s Word – taking it in
Ø Learn from God’s Word
Ø Apply God’s Word to our everyday life
God Created Our Emotions
Our emotions are part of our creation. God gave us emotions.
Have you felt any of these emotions recently?
Ø Loneliness
Ø Fear
Ø Desire
Ø Sadness
God’s use of emotions in a believer:
The fruit of the Holy Spirit – the character qualities that the Holy Spirit manifests in our lives are emotion-laden fruit:
The fruits of the Holy Spirit are: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.
How do our emotions relate to our behavior?
Emotions are attached to our every thought.
We allow a thought to take root in our minds, we visualize that thought taking place in reality, and then we make a decision in our will about how we are going to respond. This takes place in a matter of seconds without us realizing it.
You must use diligence with your thought life. Negative thoughts about yourself? Rehashing the past?
Where did the thoughts come from ( ex. - an experience in earlier life)?
Avoid situations that you know will put negative thoughts and images into your mind.
You must go out of your way to halt the negative or destructive messages that come into your mind unsolicited and unwanted.
Ways to stop unwanted thoughts:
Say STOP to the thought or think of a red stop sign and most important,
pray for God to remove them – right as it happens. Pray, memorize scripture. Read your Bible, listen to Christian music.
Can you recall a time when you found it very difficult not to act on a
thought that had rooted itself in your mind and encouraged your emotional response to it?
The Foundation for Healing Emotions
Here are some alternatives that people take to healing their emotions:
Ø Repression or stifle - Push the emotions down or ignore them
Ø Denial – Pretend the problems are not there
Ø Divert – Think of something else like, buying things, self medicating, sleeping excessively, overeating
When we manifest our emotions in Godly thinking, beauty,
harmony, mutual benefit and growth result. When we manifest our emotions in negative thoughts, we find discord, estrangement, destruction and sin.
Have you ever tended to repress, stifle, drift or divert
your emotions as alternatives to learning how to heal your
emotions?
The Process of Healing Our Emotions
You can’t control or heal your emotions by yourself. You need the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s help is only made available to those who accept the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the cross, receive God’s forgiveness and open their lives to the in-dwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
Examine your dominant thoughts. What do you think about most often?
Are your dominant thoughts about how someone has wronged or hurt you?
Are your dominant thoughts negative about yourself?
Explore your feelings about thoughts you might have that are contrary to God’s Word (example: You are….not loved, not worthy, not good enough, etc.) If these thoughts and feelings are contrary to God’s Word, ask God to help you to change these thoughts and feelings to what God wants you to think or feel.
Identify the thoughts you have that are contrary to God’s word.
Identity them, write them down.
Identify (write down) how you would like to feel.
Journal how you can get there. A few examples are: prayer, reading scripture, spending quiet time with God. Sit quietly and spend time asking God.
Exercise your powerful privilege of prayer.
Example of a prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus for teaching me to trust that you will help me to overcome my weaknesses. Help me Lord, have an automatic positive feeling toward this problem.
Expect God’s healing to begin.
God’s Desire for You: Strong, Healthy Emotions
The Lord wants you to have strong and healthy emotions. You can have this with the help of the Holy Spirit at work in your life. The Holy Spirit can help you to control your thoughts and feelings.
Make it your prayer today to ask the Lord to help you develop healthy emotions.
Ask Him to give you the courage to show your emotions in healthy ways.
A Healthy Emotional Response to Life-
God’s Picture of Emotional Health
Rely on God:
Jesus placed His trust squarely on His Father for everything!
How much more do we need to go to the Father?
To feel emotionally secure and healthy, you must place your total trust in God. Believe that He will take care of you, protect you and love you regardless of what anyone has said or done to you.
Give Generously to Others
The person with healthy emotions is willing to risk love just as Jesus did.
In what ways do you feel challenged to give more freely of yourself to others?
Continually ask for the Holy Spirit’s Guidance
If you feel anger, for example, ask the Holy Spirit for guidance
about how to change that anger into positive behavior. One way may be to go to the person who made you angry and talk through the situation. Another may be to talk to a Christian friend about the situation. Always praying first. Read Matthew 18:15-18
You will find a change in heart that results in God’s blessing, instead of harm.
Read: Proverbs 3: 5-6
John 15: 5
Is there something that gives you an emotional response in your daily life?
Do you feel challenged to rely on guidance from the Holy Spirit?
Recognize the Spiritual Enemy
Jesus recognized that his true enemy was Satan.
We have had countless experiences in which we felt hurt, angry, frustrated, disappointed, worried and discouraged.
As an emotionally healthy person, we do not turn to revenge or retaliation against others. We turn instead to prayer, forgiveness and blessing.
Are you willing and ready to turn away from all repressing, drifting, or diverting from your emotions, and seek instead to have your emotions healed?
Do you desire to base your emotional health on the same principles reflected in the life of Jesus Christ?
The first, and most important step is to make a decision with your will that you desire to pursue emotional health and strength. You must want your emotional life to be in harmony with your spiritual life – a whole life founded in Jesus Christ.
Thoughts to Remember:
“The righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands.” Ecclesiastes 9: 1 (NIV)
With His loving and strong hands He can turn us around and train us to move in new ways and new directions.
PLEASE READ:
Phil. 4:8
Phil. 4:13
John 10:10
Ephesians 6:11
Lesson 2 Self Image
Often we think our self-image is what we see in the mirror or what we think of ourselves. How would you describe yourself?
Your emotional health is rooted strongly in your self-image. Almost all of your behavior is based on who you think you are, and how you feel about yourself.
Your true self-image is linked to who you are in Jesus
If you have a relationship with Christ, you have accepted that God so loved you that he sent His son Jesus to die for you. You are a special creation of the good and all powerful God. You are the climax of his creation, the magnum opus of the greatest artist in the universe. You are created in his image; with capacities to think, feel, and worship that set you above all other life forms.
You are unique among your kind. God has masterminded the exact combination of DNA and chromosomes that constitute your genetic code, making you as different from all others as every snowflake differs from the rest.
As a Christian, you are clothed with the righteousness of Christ. He has given you special gifts and abilities to serve him in a particular and unique way.
Your heavenly Father is sovereign, and will allow nothing to cross your path that is not Father filtered. He cares for you so much that He is totally available to you at all times, and listens to every word that you say.
He cares deeply about your hurts, and has a perfect plan for your life. He has given you the inspired Word of God as a road-map for living. He gives you truth that sets you free, a life that is abundant and eternal, and a spiritual family that loves and needs you.
Your destiny is to live forever in a magnificent kingdom, to reign with Christ over the universe. You will forever enjoy the wonders of his presence and the marvels of his creations. You will spend eternity in intimate and joyful fellowship with your beloved Lord.
As Christians, our worth and self-image must flow from Jesus. We are worthy because He declares us to be worthy. We are loved because He loves us.
The Impact of Parent’s Words
If you have a poor self-image today, you may have been taught that self-image. Your parents may have instilled it in you, or possibly a deep hurt or abuse may have instilled it in you. It is counterproductive to blame your parents and others. In most cases, they didn’t intend to give you a negative self-image or hurt you.
As an adult, you can make new choices. You can learn who you really are through Jesus.
Read this: 2 Corinthians 5:17
You can believe the absolute truth about what God says in His Word. God says that you are His beloved child.
Even people with healthy self-esteem must face the same reality. No one is perfect. No one is perfectly whole or complete. All of us are in need of a Savior, and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives to help turn us into the likeness of Jesus.
From Max Lucado-As Jesus stepped into the garden, you were in His prayers.
As Jesus looked into heaven, you were in His vision...
His final prayer was about you. His final passion was you.
Do you know with certainty today that:
· God loves you infinitely, unconditionally, and eternally?
· God stands ready to forgive you of all of your sins and trespasses against Him and others?
· Jesus Christ valued your life so much that He gave His life for you?
· You are being transformed more and more into the likeness of
Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit works in and through your life?
Lesson 3 Healing for Anger, Disappointment, Bitterness
The things that can destroy a good self-image are:
The trap of guilt – 1 John 1:9
Feeling guilt for sins you have committed and asked for forgiveness from God. Ask God for forgiveness of sins – as they happen. You do not need to keep asking forgiveness for sins that have already been forgiven. Christ died on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven. Accept the forgiveness that has been given, and then forgive yourself.
The trap of over achievement – Ephesians 2: 8-10
Trying to do it all – either because you are driven, or because you don’t trust others enough to let them help with a task.
The trap of criticism – Psalm 141:5 and Proverbs 9:9-10
People who are willing to listen to every bit of criticism leveled against them, listen and take to heart every bit of criticism leveled against them, this type of person has a great need for others to approve of them.