Feelings a fact of life

Linking up with Tuesday at Ten

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1: 3-8

Feelings can betray us, they are fickle, yet everyday we feel feelings necessary to go through life.  A common question asked each day is how are you feeling? To feel as a verb is to be aware of or to experience an emotion or sensation. In Victory Over Darkness by Neil Anderson he says, “Feelings are God’s red flags of warning.” He shares in chapter 7, You Can’t Live Beyond What You Believe, “When an experience or relationship leaves you feeling angry, anxious, or depressed, those emotional signposts are there to alert you that you may be cherishing a faulty goal based on a wrong belief.”

Emotionally we may feel anger and anger may rise up to greet you when a goal’s blocked or a friend betrays you. How do you handle the emotion of anger? We have many great examples of how Jesus reacted to the Pharisee in the Bible. He had righteous anger. However, in response to anger, how we react is key.  Walking in forgiveness is the key.  Have a short list of wrongs.  Be willing to forgive. Such great advice in Ephesians 4: 27-28, “Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Emotions of anxiety and worry can bring illness into our life. As a hospital case manager, the anxiety I witness is mind-boggling. In Psalm 55:22, “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” Pastor David Jeremiah says we need to give our worry to God, it is a sin to be anxious and worried. In Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Replacing sadness with love and joy which are the best emotions to experience. In John 15: 10-12, “If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told youthese things so that My joy may bein you and your joy may be complete. 1This is My commandment, that you love one another as I loved you.”

Photo credit Dr. Michelle Bengtson @2016

Beloved, do you believe that you are worthy? We are worthy of God’s love, his redeeming love. Each one of us are responsible for our own attitudes and actions. Satan likes to mess with our emotions that is why we must take every thought captive to the Lord. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  Every day we can draw close to God as in the directions of James 4: 7-8, but we must submit to God and resist the devil.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Daily our emotions are there to feel and we have a choice to make on how to respond to the emotion at hand. Without emotions, our world would be black and white and would have no color, no depth, no love.  But with God’s love daily we have hope and our emotions and feeling are safe with him.