The people you allow to reside in your heart and the thoughts you allow to keep in your head are the two most powerful and poisonous things that affect your life. The people you keep in your heart become ghosts that follow you around, whispering to you in the crowd, and more often than not, we listen. And thoughts grow. They never exist in a vacuum. It's not in our nature to let our thoughts lie. They always lead to other thoughts within the same issue but to a higher degree. Your house, your job, your hobbies do not make up your world. People do. Thoughts do. You build your world on people pillars. It is okay to feel sad, but never dwell on your sadness and become hard. It is okay to feel angry, but do not let the sun go down while you are still angry (Ephesians 4:26). Never entertain negative thoughts. Don't give them a comfortable home in your head because they will spread like a cancer. God knows how easily our thoughts sway and how we surrender ourselves to our hearts and our minds and so He warns: Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:1-2). Filtering our thoughts and letting go of history takes a lot of discipline. And of course we can't do this by our own strength because we like to wallow in sadness, don't we? We like to entertain memories that do us no good. But what we can do is run towards God. We can focus on Him and let Him settle the rest. When God fills up all the space in our hearts and our minds, everything else will be trivial. When He is the only one we need, and we realise we already have God through Jesus Christ, we will be more than content, more than conquerors! We make God fight for space in our hearts and minds when we refuse to let things go, when we refuse to surrender to Him, when we tell Him, "let me be sad just for a little while more, I deserve to feel sad." Jesus did not die on the cross and reconcile us with God just so we could keep our ghosts and dwell on our sad times. He died on the cross and reconciled us with God so that we could be free. So that God could consume our beings and fill us up with His presence, His Holy Spirit, so that we could be the creation He had in mind from the beginning. To be children of God. Not children of this world, children of God. If you are troubled, talk to God. He is the mighty God of the world, large-scale Creator who formed the seas and land and sky. But He is also our intimate God who calls Himself our Father, small-scale, He holds us in His palms and listens. Not because of who we are or what we can do, but because of His nature. Because He is love. Talk to God. Even when nobody listens to you or nobody understands, remember that [your heavenly Father] knows what you need before you ask Him (Matthew 6:8). And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of God's glory and grace.