Princess,
Once i get rolling, I may be bringing more than you need to hear right now, so take what you need and leave the rest—
We can always bring all things to the Lord in prayer and here on this thread three have agreed on the need for Princess to feel the mutual approach of the Comforter. A lot of times we bring things to the Lord, but then hold onto the mental residue instead of letting go and letting God.
Some random comments on changing states of mind and feelings of emptiness and loneliness:
Before anything can be brought back into order, it is quite normal for it to be brought first into a kind of confusion and sometimes a virtual chaos. In this way, things within us that fit together badly are severed and the Lord rearranges the order of what we need to face and what we no longer need to face and repent according to our responses moment to moment.
Sometimes the primary purpose of loneliness and even depression is to separate and remove negative states that reveal their quality by contrasts to better states. No one can grasp with full sensitivity what is good, what is blessed and happy without having been in a state of not-good, not-blessed, and not-happy.
Making passages in the new life of all things being made anew, we sometimes pass into states of disturbance. Evil and false things absorbed in the past can come out and disturb us like a hellish crew trying to destroy our new life of trusting peace in the Lord. Still, at our deepest level, we have access to states of God’s peace. During one of the most troubling times in my life, I asked the Lord for some peace of mind and experienced the first of sublime states of peace that to this day nurtures my trust and faith in God. Peace and trust mutually feed each other.
God brings inspirations of peace and trust and always greeted people with “Peace be with you” When we are not trusting and at peace, we are in states that tempt us away from the peace of trusting God like a child trusts a caring parent. We do not have to be at the mercy of internal negative states of mind. We come to points where we have choices over one mental state or another if we can perceive them both. These contrasting transitions are possible for us who are listening to the Lord, not only over the time we seem stuck, but within any moment we let go and cease claiming the negative as our own.
The Lord lays out blessed states in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:3-10). For instance, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled; blessed are the merciful for they will obtain mercy; or blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
I think the Lord is saying there is a quality in us that is blessed, if we listen to it, if we pay attention to it, if we look for it, if we are open to it. We might even notice these good qualities in ourselves during certain times of negative states of mind. So, there can be different states in us at the same time vying for center stage. If we pay attention we may even notice that some of these states are blessed. Is the Lord describing blessed states that are available to us, within us, right now?
You may have read about the Lord declaring He stands at the door and knocks and wants to enter and sup with us. I suggest that entering this upper room, to sup with the Lord involves mutual approach—we approach the Lord like a bride prepared at the entrance of His Knocking and he mutually approaches us like the bridegroom. The entry to this upper room, and its gate or door is acceptance. All anxiety is the non-acceptance of what is—accepting what is, what state and condition we are facing is the gateway to tranquility.
On one level, acceptance of what is means accepting our lot, the hand we have been dealt in the temporal moment. But i think it means more than that, i think it means accepting each moment as it is, which includes the mental state we are in right now. The Lord brings us into elevated states, and allows us to sink into self-pity, and whatever negative, impatient states of anxiety, fear, anger, or upset we entertain.
Accepting the contrasts of states reveal their qualities, and we can also see the change within ourselves by noticing that if we can accept both the positive and negative kinds of states that seem to overwhelm us, we can achieve tranquility. If we accept that we are anxious, we can be tranquil. Although it sounds strange, we can be anxious and tranquil at the same time.
We are given blessed states of mind; we can be in the upper room of tranquility, supping with the Lord, while the beasts in our basement insinuate upset and anxiety on a more external level of our being.
In mindless states, we become programmed to the negative states of upset and anxiety in which we allow ourselves to dwell before becoming mindful and turning back to the Lord in trust in order to receive the gift of peace of mind.
If we accept that the negative states programmed in mindlessness have a hold and will return until repented by the letting go of non-identification, we become more mindful and remain in the upper room with the Lord of peace. The Lord leads us through the temptations we draw to us in order to mindfully deliver us from the self-centered evils formerly programmed into us during the times we walk mindlessly. (As opposed to bringing all thoughts captive to Christ breath to breath).
acceptance in peace and trust open all the doors,
johnscot
