We cannot keep functioning well with raw feelings unattended. We need to take time to express them upward and receive the peace of God in return. Otherwise we run the real risk of displacement: making a bystander pay for a crime they didn’t commit.
Tag: feelings
Even when I suspect the worst and it turns out to be true, I will inevitably experience a wave of disappointment. If I give myself over to that wave, it will carry me out of God’s purpose and off to a place that is me-focused. That sea of selfishness is far from God’s best for my life. Instead allowing myself to be carried away, I handle disappointment best when I lift my voice to the Father and air my grievances upward. Crying out to heaven makes my soul stronger in the waves of sorrow, less susceptible to the drift of self-pity.
This idea of governing our feelings can be daunting. My feelings are loud and powerful: a bit like the Niagara River spilling over the Falls. Even with that analogy, I recall that the Niagara features a series of locks along the way: allowing for the regulation of the flow of rushing waters.
So often we get silence from God and we assume He’s left the premises. We interpret stillness as abandonment, when truly, He’s working behind the scenes. We must recall: abandonment is not a part of God’s nature.
In our flesh, in the dirt of day-to-day living, it may feel like God has failed. Our story might be deeply marked by loss. We may be tempted to believe the lie of divine abandonment. But we must recall: God isn’t through just yet.
“I seriously considered inflicting my anger on them in force right there in Egypt. Then I thought better of it. I acted out of who I was, not by how I felt.” (Ezekiel 20:9 MSG) I first read this scripture in this translation a week…
“For the accuser of our others and sisters, who accuses them before God day and night, has been hurled down.” (Revelation 12:10 NIV) There is an accuser. All our shame comes from someone. We think we are the source, but no, there is an unseen…