Why Small Things Trigger Big Reactions | The Hidden Power of Your Past

We have to submit our emotions to God, not ask him, not invite him to submit to us. Right? Because faith is not the absence of emotion. It's the submission of our emotion. Jesus modeled for this in the Garden Of Gethsemane when he says, not my will, but your will be done. I want this so bad. I think I know what's right, but not my will, God almighty. Let your will be done in me. So instead of trying to fit God into our emotions, into our plans, we've gotta fully submit to what our faith says is his good and perfect will. The will that we can actually trust in. [00:39:07] (42 seconds)  #SubmitEmotionsToGod

And so here's the bottom line for today. The bottom line is this, faith can actually become your reflex when God starts to reshape your soul. We can actually respond even to those damaging roots, those strong roots, right, those deep roots. We can start to respond in the moment with faith instead of responding to the emotional past. Yeah? As God begins to reshape our soul. Like, we don't have to react to with anger. We don't have to react with fear. Like, we don't have to be frozen when we experience painful triggers. Like, when we're rooted deeply in Jesus, our natural response to triggers can actually be born out of faith instead. [00:16:20] (45 seconds)  #FaithAsReflex

Guys, David almost destroyed an entire family because one insult touched an emotional wound. And if we're honest with ourselves, we've all faced that before. Right? We've all had moments like that. But Abigail went to David, trusted in David, right, and helped him break free of the chains of the past to start changing his perspective. Right? She helped him break free of the chains of his past trauma so that he could respond to his current circumstance with faith, not emotion, with faith. And she has three powerful things in her statement. She interrupts his reaction. She speaks truth to his identity. She reminds him of where he's going and what God has called him to do, and she reminds him of God's promise. Right? His faithfulness, his covenant faithfulness. [00:33:01] (57 seconds)  #SpeakTruthLikeAbigail

In other words, she does give to David something that David could never have given to himself. She gave him perspective. Perspective. How? By helping him to focus forward on the promises and faithfulness of God himself instead of the pain of his past. Right? She brought awareness to him. She showed him that what he was doing was reactionary and not based on God's promise and God's faithfulness. And God used Abigail to intervene in the cycle and begin the process of restoration because faith can become your reflex when God reshapes your soul. That is our truth. [00:33:58] (46 seconds)  #PerspectiveOverPain

But, guys, that's the power of the church. That's why the church matters so deeply. That's why it needs to matter so deeply to us because we need to have Abigail's in our lives who point us back to Jesus. Amen? We need people who can lift us, sharpen us, encourage us, remind us that the pain of the past is real, but it doesn't define our present, and it can't hold us back from our future. [00:42:25] (28 seconds)  #CommunityTransforms

And over time, emotional reactions become soul patterns. Emotional reactions become soul pattern because many of our emotional responses, they are conditioned reflexes. They're not faith filled decisions. Right? David isn't looking to God for what direction to go in, how to respond, what to do next. Right? This is not a faith filled decision. This is an emotional response, a conditioned reflex. Because our souls carry memories of past pain, rejection, fear. Right? All the different things, all the experience that we have, we store all those things so that when similar situations arise. Right? One word of disrespect and those emotional imprints activate in us. And it's automatic, guys. [00:27:34] (51 seconds)  #BreakConditionedReflex

What's a trigger? A trigger is when something in the present activates pain from the past. Something happens. Right? It can be something completely unrelated, something completely innocent. Something happens in the present that activates a pain that we experienced in our past. And neuroscience tells us something fascinating about how the brain actually works. Right? Because when we experience emotional pain, our brain creates these neural pathways that connect one experience to another. Right? And it and it combines them with with, like, these strong emotions. So later in life and when something reminds us of that experience, our brain reacts in an instant, and that's what we call a trigger. [00:12:38] (47 seconds)  #TriggersLinkPast

Point is, our brains and our souls remember pain. Our brain and souls remember pain. You see, our souls carry emotional imprints from our past. Right? And when we're triggered, we tend to respond in those to those things in in really three ways. Right? And you probably all heard this before. We either fight, flight, or we kinda freeze in the moment. Like, some of us fight. We lash out at others. Where we lash out of the pain through things that that that other people are are experiencing. Right? We lash out at other people, even those that we love. [00:13:49] (39 seconds)  #FightFlightFreeze

our brain creates these neural pathways that connect one experience to another. Right? And it and it combines them with with, like, these strong emotions. So later in life and when something reminds us of that experience, our brain reacts in an instant, and that's what we call a trigger. Like, my work trauma, whatever was going on with me, my work trauma was so deeply embedded in my psyche with such deep neural pathways that it triggered an unreasonable, unthought of, really unprovoked emotional response to my poor daughter who just simply spilled a glass of milk. Right? Point is, our brains and our souls remember pain. Our brain and souls remember pain. You see, our souls carry emotional imprints from our past. Right? And when we're triggered, we tend to respond in those to those things in in really three ways. Right? And you probably all heard this before. We either fight, flight, or we kinda freeze in the moment. [00:13:04] (72 seconds)