Although I've been saved my whole life, I've recently had a major "a-ha" moment. For so much of my life I was a slave to my moods and emotions. However I felt when I woke up that day dictated how my entire day was going to go. I tried to follow my heart and go by my "gut feelings." This is widely accepted in this world. We snap at our family and say we're just cranky. We are moody at work at tell people we woke up on the wrong side of the bed. We begin and end relationships because of the way we "feel." All my life I never realized that this way of thinking was wrong. Then I started diligently seeking answers on how to have a better Christian life. What I found set me free.
Emotions were created by God and we will feel them because we are human. God doesn't say having emotions or feelings are wrong. They can be wonderful a lot of times. But there are a lot of feelings that aren't so nice. Anger, jealousy, depression, worthlessness, etc., can become overbearing forces that can literally ruin our day, our week, even our lives if we let them. In reading my Bible the past few months I realized that although we feel these things...we don't have to live IN them. The Bible says "In your anger do not sin." So that tells me we can feel negative emotions, but what we do with them is our choice. Yup...our CHOICE!! We can get angry and flip out or we can get angry and give it to God. If I couldn't pray for strength, I don't know what I would do. And if I couldn't read the Bible, I don't know where I'd be. The Bible tells me what is reality regardless of what my circumstances are telling me. It tells me that God works everything out for my good. It tells me that Christians go through bad time, but we don't go through them alone. And what the devil meant for bad, God meant for good. So all of that affirmation makes me realize that no matter what comes my way, I don't have to be a slave to the natural emotions that stem from circumstances, and the knowledge of God's promise of everything working out makes it much easier to do.
Now for those good feelings. We shouldn't be a slave to them either. For example, people make bad choices such as starting or ending friendships, relationships, and marriages based on feelings. It's nice to feel those warm, mushy feelings in the beginning, but we need to remember that God gives us practical wisdom in the Bible that we can use as a guide to see if our feelings can be trusted. Example...you're in a marriage but the guy at work makes you laugh and gives you butterflies. The rules of this world would say, "Go with your heart. Noone should be in a dead marriage. Everyone deserves to be happy." If we use the Bible to get clarity on these feelings, we will read that God gave us marriage for happiness and unity, and it was our choice to enter into it. It says that what God has joined together, let no man seperate. It also says that nothing is impossible for God, and that includes restoring your marriage. These guidelines help keep your feeling in check, give you the answer as to what the right thing to do is, while at the same time giving you hope that if you put your faith in Him and do your part, your marriage can be absolutely amazing again.
I start my day with reading the Bible and prayer. It is like putting on a new me. I could've woken up cranky, tired, miserable, whatever...but I don't have to stay that way. I'm not perfect. I still snap at the kids and fight with my husband. But it's getting less and less and when it does happen, I can regroup more quickly, apologize, and say I'm not doing that again instead of "this is how I feel, now everyone has to just deal with it." Living to make others happy actually makes yourself much more happy as well. God really knows what He's talking about!
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