Thursday, July 12, 2007

Got emotions? (Yeah, me too.)

Sometimes I cave to a flood of emotions that seems to mock the dam that is my will.

Hmmm. That was very wordy. In simple terms: I’m a girl.

Now before I’m misunderstood, let me quickly say that I believe emotions are good, wonderful, and God-given. Throughout Scripture, we’re commanded to “emote” in a variety of ways: be at peace, have joy, delight in the Lord, don’t lose our zeal, feel awe, praise God, don’t fear, and so on. Our emotions are part of the whole; we cannot separate them from the body, soul, mind, spirit, will. But there’s a fine line between commanding our emotions and being commanded by them, glorifying God with our emotions and glorifying the emotions themselves.

So once in a while, especially when I’m drowning in emotion (whether it be fear, condemnation, jealousy, pity, anger, etc.), it’s helpful to meditate on a simple Scripture such as Luke 6:47-48.

"Everyone who
comes to Me and
hears My words and
does them,
I will show you what he is like: he is like a man
building a house who
dug deep and
laid the foundation on the rock.
And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built."

Come.
Hear.
Do.

Dig deep and lay a solid foundation.
Don’t let your house be shaken by the flood.

I love Jesus’ simple words to my complicated heart. I will go to Him. I will listen to Him. I will do what He says.