Have you thanked Him?
Have you praised Him?
Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?
Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?
1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)
1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.
It is difficult to believe God is in control when we are in the midst of anxiety, heartache, or grief. Yet is then we must learn to TRUST God with one choice at a time, one moment at time and one circumstance at a time. Trusting God is not a matter of feelings for we will never feel like trusting God when adversity strikes. Trusting GOD means that HIS TRUTH must “run the show” regardless of how we feel.
“Our feelings are unreliable and cannot be trusted to convey truth.”
― Joyce Meyer
This week has been a barrage of conversations with folks dealing with unreliable feelings.
“I am so frustrated”
"I feel manipulated"
“I am confused”
“This angers me so.”
“This makes me feel unappreciated”
Vulnerable feelings.
Hard to interpret feelings.
Angry feelings
Lucado in his book “You’ll Get Through This” sheds this light…
…“You’ll get through this. You fear you won’t. We all do. We fear that the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave. Here in the pits, surrounded by steep walls and angry brothers, we wonder, Will this gray sky ever brighten? This load ever lighten? We feel stuck, trapped, locked in. Predestined for failure. Will we ever exit this pit?
Yes! Deliverance is to the Bible what jazz music is to Mardi Gras: bold, brassy, and everywhere.”
Did you catch that?
When the feelings are dictating everything from mood to mobility, remember the TRUTH. And the TRUTH will FREE you. Not only from the pit as Lucado describes but from the pre-occupations, the false fears, and the circular churn of uncertain thoughts and conversations.
…the truth WILL set you free. John 8:32 (NIV)
I have a good friend who has a friend who is in trouble, real trouble; life-altering trouble. The accusations against his friend are severe. Yet today (yes today first thing this morning 6am), I reminded him that we must lean on the TRUTH, not opinion or allegations before we act.
The same holds true for us in our personal walks with Christ. We are going to face troubles. We are going to experience adversity. We are going to be thrown into situations that will have us scared, uncertain, wobbly and fearful. Jesus said we would. (John 16:33)
These feelings will seek to paralyze us; even incarcerate us.
Our job in those times is to REMEMBER the FREEING TRUTH of the Word.
Things like … “no weapon will prosper…” Isaiah 54
Things like … “2 Corinthians 4:8-9 – “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…”
Things like…”the Lord your God is with you wherever you go…”Joshua 1:9
Those truths clear the fog of feelings.
Those truths break the bars of fear.
Those truths free the mind and invigorate the SPIRIT in each of us.
The ENEMY always wants to tell you about what you are feeling and how unfair the circumstances are or how your needs should be met. Yet when the TRUTH is applied, suddenly we remember that ALL things are working for GOOD (Romans 8:28) and that GOD is in the need meeting business everyday! (Philippians 4:19)
That defrocks the ENEMY's feeling manipulation faster than anything else!
So today, if you are feeling incarcerated by your feelings, trust the TRUTH.
“The delight which the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth---'I am the Lord, I change not.'” ― Charles H. Spurgeon
I love you ALL!
Pastor GDelaney
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