Taming The Wild Emotions

Rogue emotions need to be kept firmly on a leash or even locked up. If we give way to any of them too much, we become their prisoners instead of their masters, and it’s essential we don’t end up trapped inside a cage with our untamed emotions!
Stefan Carey and Andrew Rooke

Over this last year, I have found myself awakened to emotions and feelings that have needed someone or something to tame them and bring them into submission to God’s truth and honest evaluation. It has been quite an amazing realization that all of these waves of emotions lived inside of me but were ignored for many years. Why was I not listening to them? How did this wild untamed stallion live inside of me, unknown for so long, and then one day wake up with such fierce control over my actions? I think that somehow, I believed that if I listened to them, they might make me weak as a leader and a pastor. Like it or not, I have discovered that I am a human, with a beating heart and with feelings about what God is doing in my life, how people in my life are living, and what is happening in my surroundings. As I have been adjusting to this new phenomenon of emotional pressure, it has become very clear that, if my emotions are given the freedom to run, they will run me right off of a cliff. So what do we do with these God-given emotional nerve-endings? How do i keep my heart alive and care for those around me when, not only are my own emotions unstable, but everyone I come in contact with has their own issues with instability?

This is where discipline of the mind comes into play. In the daily devotional book I follow, the author has been focusing on different aspects of “disciplining the mind” and not allowing it to simply wander. The mind, in so many ways, becomes the boundaries for the heart’s emotions. If you just take a moment to watch people and how they respond to emotions, it is easy to see the truth of this statement. When we take these feelings of pain, sadness, anger--whatever the emotion--and place it into the guidelines of truth, then it will protect us and those we love. I was watching a group of people at work, just yesterday, as they allowed one person, who is a complainer by nature, take a situation, stir up everyone’s emotions and, before you knew it, there was anger and disappointment, with no real truth behind the emotions stirred. The few people in the situation who took the time to find out the truth remained at peace. This is the same scenario that happens in every one of our lives on a daily basis.

So now we come to the all-important question of, “what must happen for our mind to be the guiding boundary to the feelings that long to control us?”

1. Submit Your Heart, Mind and Body to the Lord
Too many times we trust our own understanding and, if we are sick and unhealthy, we will never come to truthful, godly answers. I was watching the show “House” a couple of nights ago, and there was a doctor who inadvertently caught the disease that he was trying to cure in a patient and he began to go crazy. Here we have an amazing and well-trained doctor who could no longer be trusted, because the disease was affecting his mind and his emotional responses took control. If we have not submitted our hearts, minds, and bodies to the Lord and allowed Him to cleanse us and heal us, then what makes any of us think that we are standing on stable enough ground to make judgments about what we are seeing, hearing, thinking or feeling?


2. Slow Down and Seek Truth
If you are finding that you have to respond to something immediately while the emotions are fresh, then you probably are not the one in control. There may be a time for those difficult conversations and quite possibly, even consequences delivered for those actions that have taken place, but until truth is sought out it is comparable to taking a person who is driving 100 miles per hour and asking them to be gentle as they go over the speed bumps. When I speak of truth, I am referring to the truth of God and His promises found in scripture when one is immersed with them and not just splashed with a few of the good ideas during a church service.

3. Invite the Holy Spirit to Give Guidance
The Bible is very clear that the Lord has given us free will. It is unclear how it all works out but He has promised to not force you to do anything. He will guide you when the guidance is invited. He will stand, waiting for an invitation, watching your life unfold and weep at the painful consequences of prideful decisions when you think you are wise enough to figure it out yourself. He has great plans for those who will seek Him with all of their hearts.

4. Follow Truth Even When You Don’t Feel Like It
Now this is the most difficult part of following the Lord. Too many of us have been lied to and quickly bought the lie that the Lord wants us to be comfortable. I have always believed that the Lord will stretch us and push us like a partner pushes someone who is exercising. But I have personally found that what the Lord has asked me to do and who he has asked me to be is far more intense than a work-out partner. God has asked me to take feelings and emotions that seem more real than His existence and lay them aside to follow His admonitions. This feels very unnatural, and I am finding that I am being asked to do things like forgive, trust, and be at peace, when my whole being is screaming for me to run the opposite direction. I am being asked to do things that can only be done if given strength and ability found outside of who I am--a strength and ability that is only found in the One who is doing the asking. I am learning that my faith will only grow when I am willing to trust God and walk through pain.

Dear Lord,
Please help me and anyone reading this blog submit our hearts and minds to you. Help us be disciplined and focused. Help us position our lives in a place where we are willing to walk through the fire as long as you are walking with us. We need your perspective more than we need our own understanding. Help us be content in hearing your perspective when our emotions begin to scream at us and we try to take control of our own lives instead of trusting in you and your great plan.
Amen

Luke 2:8-12
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

There is such a great promise that has been given to us in scripture. Not just a promise of a wise or good man, not just a healer or miracle worker but also a Savior! Just think the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings went through so much sacrifice to come and meet us, on our level, as a man so that He could offer us life. We have so much to be thankful for and so much to live for, but it seems that we get so easily distracted. Let’s not get distracted this week from what this season is about but instead embrace all of who Jesus is.

“Christ became what we are that He might make us what He is.” Athanasius of Alexandria

What is getting in the way of you allowing the Lord to transform you into His image and His likeness?

Yes, this season is a great time for you to spend time with your family and your loved ones but it is more important and more pertinent for you to spend time with your Savior. He is standing at the door of your heart knocking asking to be able to come and love you just the way you are. For those of us who have known the Lord for some time and have invited Him into our heart it is still a daily decision to allow Him to enter into the hidden chambers of our heart and transform every habit, attitude, and secret motive. Let this Christmas bring the greatest freedom in your life as you decide to trust in and follow Jesus Christ our Messiah.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year!

A Psalm

I was praying about what to write and share and I kept coming back to a psalm that my wife wrote the other day. So this weeks devotional is written by Melissa Dahir. I hope that it encourages you and inspires to run to the feet of the Lord and linger there for a while. He sure loves your company.

A Psalm
Written by Melissa Dahir

Have you ever observed a tree,
Lush and green and fruitful,
As the chilly hands of autumn creep in
And begin to prepare nature for the solace of winter?
The sunlight decreases, greedily stealing its warmth
And the crisp winds begin to blow--
Colder each day, freezing well into the nights.
And the tree, the beautiful, blossoming tree
Begins a transformation.
Her foliage turns from deep, luscious green,
Rich with raindrops, dew and nutrients,
Into brittle, brown decay.
The windy breath of earth blusters through,
Shaking the last few remnants of health from her limbs
Until she stands alone
Naked. Empty. Forgotten.
But have you ever noticed
That she does not resist this process?
She does not cling tightly to her leaves,
To her mere temporary covering,
Crying, “Come back! I will not let you depart from me. I need you too desperately to let you go. I am lost without you!”
She does not cower, ashamed of her unclothed body.
She does not try to grasp that which was not hers in the first place.
No.
Instead, she stands strong against the ripping wind
Brave against the bone-chilling cold
Unafraid. Without bitterness. Without regret.
In fact, with branches stretched from root to tip, all the way out to her Maker,
She readily embraces the storms that arrive
Trusting that He will be there
To protect, to provide, to nourish.
She knows He will clothe her again, more beautifully than before
And her leaves will again give shade to the weary
And her fruit will again be food for the hungry
And when the fierceness of winter has abated
When the silence is no longer foreboding, but instead whispers, “Peace,”
She looks down at her dry, barren branch
And she sees the tiniest green bud
Yawning, and stretching its arms to the warmth of the Son.

It All Works Together

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Have you ever really sat down and tried to figure out what this scripture means? What it is trying to let us know about the heart of God and about our personal lives?

Here a few thoughts that cross my mind:

• I am not alone
This last year has brought many interesting, and at times difficult, situations to the surface for me to face. As I look back and remember the highs and lows of the journey, there has not been one step where I could not recognize the Lord’s presence. God is with me and He is with you, every step of the way!

• There is a plan
It is always easier to walk on hot coals when you know that your next step will bring the relief that your singed toes are pleading for. My most difficult moments in life have always been when I stopped trusting in the larger plan of God and felt trapped, suffering in the storm I was facing. Lift your eyes and keep them focused on the One who can calm the storm instead of the illusion of catastrophe you see before you.

• The Lord knows that I will doubt and get scared at times
There are many scriptures that the Lord has to encourage us. This is one of them. He put this verse here to remind me not to worry but to keep being diligent. He will work out the details, but I must stay on course. The fact that I have doubts and fear does not surprise Him. He not only recognizes that I will be afraid, but He also gave me a nightlight (scripture does say that His word is a light unto my path!) to help me chase away the darkness.

• There is no reason to doubt and get scared at times
I know that I just said that it was OK to be afraid and that God is not surprised, but it is also not necessary. He has already made provision to help you and protect you from whatever is around the corner or behind that door.

• There will be some events in my life that I won’t believe are good at first
I think the Lord put this scripture in the Bible to warn me that I am not going to understand everything but to hang in there anyway. Again, my doubts and uncertainty do not catch Him off guard. He created me and knows me inside and out.

• I must be about His purposes and not my own
This is the surrendering portion that is difficult for so many and especially me. I have already written out and planned in my mind what I think the Lord should do and why. How foolish I am to think that I am smart enough to plan God’s steps! I am doing my best to take all of my purposes and leave them at the foot of the cross.

• Our responsibility is to stay near the heart of God!
This scripture is a promise for those who love Him! Do you love Him? Take some time today and answer that question. If that answer is, “YES!” then take some time and figure out what that love should look like. You might find that your decisions and your life habits do not properly represent the love that you profess. Run to your Jesus today- He is waiting for you!

As you will see in this final portion of scripture, He loves you and me with a ferociousness that is unceasing.

Romans 8:31-39
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.