The Benefits of Emotions

 

Thoughts and emotions are not the enemy of our spirit or of the Spirit of God. God puts His desires in our heart, and uses negative thoughts and emotions as red flags to alert us to unmet needs and unresolved conflicts in our life.

As we take these issues to the cross, we gain God's perspective on them, and His wisdom and truth on how to overcome or to fulfill them, until His peace rules in our heart.

The word "emotion" comes from the Latin word "exmovere" which means "to move out". Our emotions motivate us to feel, and then to do something about them.

Emotions energize us, express how we feel, arouse our passions, spice up our life and restore our soul. Living without emotion is to live in a mental world of clinical, analytical thoughts without expression.

Embracing our emotions is healthy and fulfilling. Denying them is clinical and unhealthy. We block off a part of our self that is very much like our God, who exhibits emotion in so many ways.

Usually, an emotional person is empathetic, not weak; compassionate, not unstable; child-like, not childish. Emotions are very vital to our psychological and physiological well-being.

Emotions influence our attitude about our self, our world and other people. They also impact our actions. We think thoughts and then feel feelings.

Our personality influences our emotions and our emotions affect how other people perceive us. Owning our feelings without blaming them on other people is a healthy activity which allows us to effectively control them and to submit them to God's Holy Spirit to perfect them and to make them more like His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Prayer:

Father God, unto You I lift up my soul. My soul often grieves because of the cares of this world. Only You know how to best renew my mind with Your Word, restore my emotions to true joy and peace, and return my will to following after You.

You are my heart, and my soul rejoices before you. You set my feet to dancing the dance of joy, and I acknowledge You in all of my ways. We attest to the fact that all glory is due to Your name. You alone are worthy of all of our praises (Ephesians 3:4; Psalm 25:1, 29:2).

Thought for the Day:

Our soul is our personality. It contains our thoughts, our choices and our emotions. Faith brings light to our soul, and helps us to think before we speak, so we do not trip over our own words.

Our Personal Story

From the moment of our conception, a multitude of experiences influence the story of our life. Our significant others, birth order, nurture and nature all play a part in how we view our self as we mature. 

In every traumatic circumstance, Satan plants his lies, which weaken our concept of who we are and what we are meant to do as adults. He cripples us with self-doubt, fears and insecurities. 

Negative issues, spoiled plans or broken relationships color our view of life and may give us a pessimistic attitude, as well as unrestrained or reclusive behavior. 

In adulthood, we rely on the stories we built up in our mind about our self, more than we rely on the story, which God wrote for our life before we were ever born (Ephesians 2:10; Psalm 139:13). 

We can change our life by living God's story for us, rather than one of our own making. In God's story for us, His presence gives us hope (Colossians 1:27), and His Spirit guides us each moment of our day (John 16:7, 14:26; Acts 1:5). 

As we walk in the Spirit, we do not follow rules, ritualism or regulations, we live in a reciprocal relationship with God and obey His Word and Spirit (Galatians 5:15-25; John 14:15). 

We cooperate as the Holy Spirit replaces our old, carnal nature with His fruit; and we learn to depend more on God than the stock market, our employer or the sales at the supermarket (Galatians 5:22-23; Proverbs 3:5-6). 

We experience one divine appointment after another, even if we do not realize it. God uses our smile, a kind word, a helping hand, a bouquet of flowers or an interested question to change another person's life.

We are just the nudge they needed to change their mind and question their plans. We will never know until eternity how God uses us through each moment of our life. 

Prayer: Father God, thank You for our salvation through Christ's sacrifice on Calvary's cross. We appreciate Your plans for our life, and we want to live by Your Spirit each moment of our day. 

Remind us not to depend on our self or to make our plans, but to depend on You and to decrease so that You can increase within us (John 3:30). 

Heal us from the lies, which the devil uses to control our thoughts, words and deeds. Help us to walk in Your Truth and to live out Your story for our individual lives as members of Your Body, Your Bride and Your Church. 

Thought for the Day: 
When life goes our way, we tend to rely less on God and more on our self, coasting in our prayer life, neglecting Bible study and missing worship services with fellow Believers; until the next trauma or catastrophe sends us running back into God's waiting arms.

The Blessings of God's Law

God did not give Moses the Law in order to restrict and burden the people with too many rules to keep. He gave the Law as wisdom and enlightenment of how we can live a healthy life in body, soul and spirit. Our Heavenly Father developed the Law in order to protect us from our self and from people who desire to perpetuate evil on others. The Law also leads us to our need for Christ (Galatians 3:24-26).

As we read His Word and meditate on His Law, God uses these words to caution and instruct us during our daily life. This keeps us from breaking the laws of our nation and ending up in jail, it stops us from contracting illnesses from other people, it prevents us from getting enslaved by addictions, it averts disasters in our personal relationships, etc.

God will circumvent His law in certain cases when He divinely intervenes in the circumstances of our life. For instance, if two cars are heading toward one another on a collision course, God can send His angels to prevent a wreck. We usually reap what we sow in life. Although because of God's mercy and grace, He often protects us from our own, or someone elses choices (Galatians 6:7; Isaiah 63:7-9).

In addition to His Word, God also uses His Spirit to speak to His Saints and to direct our choices (Proverbs 3:5-6). However, if we are not committing our way to the Lord and walking in His Spirit, then we will often harvest the results of our humanistic decisions. As we walk in God's will instead of our own, we are filled with peace and joy, and our life is much more fulfilled.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for Your Law, which gives us the wisdom to live productive and blessed lives. You do not want us to make our plans and ask You to bless them. Instead, You want us to hear from You and to accomplish the works You created us to do (Ephesians 2:10). In order to hear from You, we need to quiet our body, ignore the thoughts and emotions in our soul, and focus on Your still, small voice communicating with us through our spirit. Show us Your ways, and teach us Your truths as we wait on You all through the day (Psalm 25:4-5; 27:11; 86:11).

Thought for the Day:
There is no conflict between the law and promises of God; the law shows that we are all controlled by sin, but those who believe in Christ will receive God's promises. - Galatians 3:21