Bev Murrill ponders the affects of negativity

Bev Murrill

Movies and bookshops are full of vampires right now; bloodsuckers are everywhere. I haven't wasted any of my own headspace on them, but this blood stained obsession for whatever darkness can breed in our collective imagination has made me realise how many vampirical types I do know, up close and personal. I've spent hours, days and years with many of them, suffering heavy personal losses as a result. Their ability to suck their victim dry is legendary, especially when people of vision and purpose are their prey.

I'm referring to that particular category of people and things with the terrifying ability to leave even the most motivated, courageous and spiritually aware people empty, dry and enervated. I'm talking about.

...Energy Vampires...

Do you know any of them? Can you put a face to the name? Are they lurking in your home or church or friendship group? Do they take up vast amounts of your time, leaving you drained of energy and motivation?

Let's face it, we all have them, ingeniously disguised as friends, colleagues, family, people who need our help, or as inanimate objects sitting innocently in our homes eager to entertain us, or perched comfortably on our laps taking all our attention (understand me - laptops, not children).

How do they so effectively rob us of our potency? What allows ordinary conversations and actions to suffer such profound loss of energy and hope?

Let's name this bloodthirsty vampire for what it is.

...negativity...

It drains the life out of us, taking with it our hope, our vision, our faith...leaving us with only deflated dreams and empty ideals.

How can we defend ourselves?

What are the strategies for freedom from negativity and hopelessness?

Check your relationships: When you leave someone, do you feel like you can take on the world and change it, or do you feel as though it's pointless to try because nothing you do will work anyway. If it's the latter, you've been bitten by an energy vampire. If you don't attend to the wound immediately, all your vision will leak away before you have a chance to implement it.

Some friends are not helpful, and that's the truth of it. Sometimes you just need to call it what it is and walk away; that relationship isn't doing you any good. But if it's your family, your colleague, someone you can't get away from, you need to be vigilant to learn how to protect your heart. When the angel told Mary she was having Jesus, the Bible says, 'she hid these things in her heart.' She needed time for the new season to become tangible in her life before she could allow others to know about it. She knew her call would be attacked, and she needed time and prayer to build up strength for what was ahead. Take care who you discuss your vision with until it's strong enough to withstand the negativity of people who don't understand.

Protect with prayer: Before you meet the person who habitually rubbishes everything you're going to say, take authority over negativity in Jesus' name and speak the life of Christ into your conversation. After you leave them, ask the Lord to cleanse you with the blood of Jesus from every piece of negativity so it can't stick to you and spoil your heart. Try it; you'll feel the difference.

Check yourself: Are you an energy vampire? What's your own conversation like, to yourself and others? Are you a complainer whose conversation is a constant repetition of your worries and woes? Is it full of fear for the future? The only thing worse than being bitten by an energy vampire is being the biter! Stop it! Get out of the habit. Ask God to give you strategies for freedom, despite your previous losses. Make intentional decisions to give thanks at every point of choice speaking life and not fear.

Addictions: Are the other type of brain drain - TV, Facebook, electronic games, entertainment that saps energy without giving anything back. I'm amazed how a night in front of the TV makes me feel even more tired and unmotivated than I was before. More marriages lose themselves in lack of engagement with each other than any of us could ever know.

Fulfilling our destiny takes time and energy. How many people have gone to heaven still half full, their vision and call unfinished, unused, unfulfilled, all because of negativity, their own and that of others. How many great works never began because of energy vampires?

Don't be one, and don't allow it to happen to you either. The days of our life are like currency; once spent, they can't be spent again. We only get one shot at this; let's make it a good one.