Note: It would take me forever to look through this site to remind myself of all I have written here, so please forgive me if I repeat myself. I don't write 'in order', rather, I write as the Spirit moves me.
Thanks for being here. :) God bless. xxx
Thanks for being here. :) God bless. xxx
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~ Bring your every emotion to Me ~
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God once placed on my heart, "Donna, everyone is allowed to react however they want; you bring your every emotion to Me." For a time, I tried this, then whined, "Go-o-o-od-d-d!! It's not working!!!" to which He replied, "Bring your every emotion to Me before you own it."
Now that worked. :)
I was reminded of this today, when I came across the following Scripture in the Verse of the Day, on Biblegateway.com:
Now that worked. :)
I was reminded of this today, when I came across the following Scripture in the Verse of the Day, on Biblegateway.com:
Sometimes life can get a little hectic, ay. At times, so many things can come against us that we no longer have the energy, time or desire to deal with any emotion beyond 'instant reaction'. As Christians, we know we're to love, to forgive, to be patient, and so on and so forth, but, hey, we're still human. We may have invited Jesus into our heart and life, but we're still a work in progress. We still feel pain, we still have attitudes and beliefs leftover from our 'previous life' - BC: Before Christ ;) - and we still get fed up with the trash that can and does get dumped on us in this life. Sometimes, we're even convinced that our 'natural reaction' is the only thing we can trust. Or is that just me? :/
I find anger is one emotion I'm quick to claim as my own. And ya got admit, sometimes, anger feels so good, doesn't it? At least, that's been my experience. I've found that anger empowers me. It justifies my reactions. It makes me, its owner, courageous.
I can recall delighting in anger many times until God ruined it for me, ;) by placing on my heart, "Whenever you're angry, you're thinking wrong."
That one stopped me in my tracks and had me looking closely at my reactions.
After God placed that in my hands, every time anger stepped up to take the lead, I took note of what I was thinking. I confess, I usually stopped and checked that after I had claimed the anger and used it to justify my reaction. During these times of angry outbursts - or soon thereafter, I should say, when conviction kicked in ;) - I'd remember God told me to bring my every reaction to Him, and then I'd ask Him to help me sort through my attitudes and responses and what had caused them. Often I would find that, upon altering my thought pattern, the anger would leave and peace would return.
That's not to say I didn't always have a reason to react, it's more that I was not reacting in 'love', as God calls us to. My thought pattern was wrong: 'I want revenge!' 'To hell with them!' and so on.
When we're reacting, or behaving outside of Love's borders, so to speak, we feel it in the flesh. We sense something is wrong. When we're not walking with the Holy Spirit, or open to His interpretation as to what it is we're going through or feeling, we start to focus on our flesh and how it's feeling. Rather than ask God what's going on, we ask our flesh for details and accept it as the gospel.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The flesh is really stupid. ;) The spirit picks up on something, and the flesh runs off with it, in whatever direction our mood lets it go. And that, in turn, causes it to get noisy in our head, and, because of that noise, we can't hear God as clearly as we can when in moments of peace and love - or meditation. Again, that could be just my experience. :)
More times than not, we trust our feelings. When we trust them, we justify them. When we justify them, we often want to guard them. When we're guarding something we own, we become protective of it. When we're protective of something, we will defend it. Often, when we're defending we'll become defensive to the point of not caring if we offend. When we no longer care if we offend, we strike out at whatever we feel is threatening us. When we do this, we have left Love far behind. Therefore, no matter what's happened, when we're not walking in love, when our thought patterns aren't based on God's truth and love, we're thinking wrong.
Does that make sense?
Ok, so 'they' may be deserving of hatred, 'they' may owe you or have offended you in a major way, but we, as Christians, are called to love - and to love not just those who love us, but to love our enemy, also.
I find anger is one emotion I'm quick to claim as my own. And ya got admit, sometimes, anger feels so good, doesn't it? At least, that's been my experience. I've found that anger empowers me. It justifies my reactions. It makes me, its owner, courageous.
I can recall delighting in anger many times until God ruined it for me, ;) by placing on my heart, "Whenever you're angry, you're thinking wrong."
That one stopped me in my tracks and had me looking closely at my reactions.
After God placed that in my hands, every time anger stepped up to take the lead, I took note of what I was thinking. I confess, I usually stopped and checked that after I had claimed the anger and used it to justify my reaction. During these times of angry outbursts - or soon thereafter, I should say, when conviction kicked in ;) - I'd remember God told me to bring my every reaction to Him, and then I'd ask Him to help me sort through my attitudes and responses and what had caused them. Often I would find that, upon altering my thought pattern, the anger would leave and peace would return.
That's not to say I didn't always have a reason to react, it's more that I was not reacting in 'love', as God calls us to. My thought pattern was wrong: 'I want revenge!' 'To hell with them!' and so on.
When we're reacting, or behaving outside of Love's borders, so to speak, we feel it in the flesh. We sense something is wrong. When we're not walking with the Holy Spirit, or open to His interpretation as to what it is we're going through or feeling, we start to focus on our flesh and how it's feeling. Rather than ask God what's going on, we ask our flesh for details and accept it as the gospel.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The flesh is really stupid. ;) The spirit picks up on something, and the flesh runs off with it, in whatever direction our mood lets it go. And that, in turn, causes it to get noisy in our head, and, because of that noise, we can't hear God as clearly as we can when in moments of peace and love - or meditation. Again, that could be just my experience. :)
More times than not, we trust our feelings. When we trust them, we justify them. When we justify them, we often want to guard them. When we're guarding something we own, we become protective of it. When we're protective of something, we will defend it. Often, when we're defending we'll become defensive to the point of not caring if we offend. When we no longer care if we offend, we strike out at whatever we feel is threatening us. When we do this, we have left Love far behind. Therefore, no matter what's happened, when we're not walking in love, when our thought patterns aren't based on God's truth and love, we're thinking wrong.
Does that make sense?
Ok, so 'they' may be deserving of hatred, 'they' may owe you or have offended you in a major way, but we, as Christians, are called to love - and to love not just those who love us, but to love our enemy, also.
It's not easy to love people who tick us off, is it.
It's not easy to forgive those who have offended us.
It takes a lot of courage to get up and keep living when we've been wounded.
Sometimes it's a struggle to hold on to hope.
Faith can often seem like a dead-weight rather than a lifeline in what we feel is a sinking ship. In such times, fear makes so much more sense, doesn't it.
It takes a lot of strength to love and trust when our hearts have been wounded - so much so we often find we don't want to trust our hearts to anyone; we don't want to love, and we then shut ourselves off from love.
Our natural reaction can bring so much pleasure...until our conscience awakens and allows love back in.
When we shut ourselves off from love, we basically stick our fingers in our ears and no longer hear God as clearly. We close our eyes to Him, and, in doing so, we soon wonder where He's gone. We can no longer feel Him with us...and soon start to wonder why He has abandoned us.
Emotions, should we trust them?
Our emotions can, if we let them, rule over us. And when we let them rule, we often find that life can seem pretty darn hopeless, ay...
When we think wrong, when we're not acting or reacting in love - how God would have us react (see Jesus for instructions on this) - we step out of God's will and peace leaves; then we cannot hear His still small voice as clearly, and the emotions start to scream.
God is Love, and, as Jesus has shown and shared with us, we're to walk in love. Jesus walked in love. He entrusted His life and His heart and His Spirit to God, and never did anything unless He first saw His Father doing it. We're called to do the same.
We're called to love. As the Father loves us - as He has shown us through Jesus Christ - we are called to love others. We are also called to walk free of our past and our pain. Gee, we're even called to accept forgiveness for our sins and to walk free of the guilt attached to them. But it ain't easy, is it.
And that's why it's so important to take our emotions to God BEFORE we claim them as our own - in that instant 'reaction' takes place - so He can keep us standing firm on Love's foundation, so we don't strike out, so we don't become slave to emotion again, so we can continue on in our freedom, shining our light for all to see - so all may see and glorify God - and so peace can remain in our hearts, and we can love as we have been loved by God; so we can love as He desires us to.
It's not easy to forgive those who have offended us.
It takes a lot of courage to get up and keep living when we've been wounded.
Sometimes it's a struggle to hold on to hope.
Faith can often seem like a dead-weight rather than a lifeline in what we feel is a sinking ship. In such times, fear makes so much more sense, doesn't it.
It takes a lot of strength to love and trust when our hearts have been wounded - so much so we often find we don't want to trust our hearts to anyone; we don't want to love, and we then shut ourselves off from love.
Our natural reaction can bring so much pleasure...until our conscience awakens and allows love back in.
When we shut ourselves off from love, we basically stick our fingers in our ears and no longer hear God as clearly. We close our eyes to Him, and, in doing so, we soon wonder where He's gone. We can no longer feel Him with us...and soon start to wonder why He has abandoned us.
Emotions, should we trust them?
Our emotions can, if we let them, rule over us. And when we let them rule, we often find that life can seem pretty darn hopeless, ay...
When we think wrong, when we're not acting or reacting in love - how God would have us react (see Jesus for instructions on this) - we step out of God's will and peace leaves; then we cannot hear His still small voice as clearly, and the emotions start to scream.
God is Love, and, as Jesus has shown and shared with us, we're to walk in love. Jesus walked in love. He entrusted His life and His heart and His Spirit to God, and never did anything unless He first saw His Father doing it. We're called to do the same.
We're called to love. As the Father loves us - as He has shown us through Jesus Christ - we are called to love others. We are also called to walk free of our past and our pain. Gee, we're even called to accept forgiveness for our sins and to walk free of the guilt attached to them. But it ain't easy, is it.
And that's why it's so important to take our emotions to God BEFORE we claim them as our own - in that instant 'reaction' takes place - so He can keep us standing firm on Love's foundation, so we don't strike out, so we don't become slave to emotion again, so we can continue on in our freedom, shining our light for all to see - so all may see and glorify God - and so peace can remain in our hearts, and we can love as we have been loved by God; so we can love as He desires us to.
Everyone is allowed to react however they want...(in other words, it's not your place to judge) but we are to take our every emotion to God, and, in turn, His Spirit - who searches the deep things of God and makes them known to us - will guide us on the right track and enable us to hold on to peace and keep us from regret, and from harming others.
A life of peace and joy - and no regrets... Who wouldn't want that. :)
A life of peace and joy - and no regrets... Who wouldn't want that. :)
John 14:25-27
~ Jesus said ~
25 ‘All this I have spoken while still with you.
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.