Feelings

01/11/2008

God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8 (NLT)

There are times in our lives when it’s been a while since we laughed or cried. Perhaps we just haven’t taken the time to stop long enough to feel much at all. Then there are the times in our lives when we can’t stop the feelings from filling us up and rushing through us like a river—the laughter can’t be held back, or we wonder if the tears will ever stop.

God is not oblivious to our feelings and where they come from. He knows, even when we don’t, and it’s in our not knowing that God’s knowing can seem so wrong…and when things seem wrong, things can feel wrong, but can we trust those feelings? Sometimes we drown in feelings that are untrue, not realizing the pool of lies we’re sinking in. Sometimes feelings are legitimate, backed up by facts and figures that support our case for feeling loved or unloved, accepted or unaccepted, understood or misunderstood. But in all of our feelings, God needs to be our anchor.

We definitely have fears and worries in life, but it doesn’t change the purity of God’s love and care for us—that is our Anchor, our bottom line that keeps us tied to Truth. Without God and prayer…without Truth, what would our feelings do to us? What should we do with them? The Bible is full of emotions, of feelings…we are not the first to feel as we do, and we won’t be the last unless Jesus comes back on this day! God does not ask us to deny our feelings; after all, He gave them to us in the first place! But I have to believe that the feelings God gave to Adam and Eve back in the perfect Garden of Eden were not quite as messed up as ours are today. After generations and thousands upon thousands of years, I don’t know that we are even sure what to think, what to feel, what is pure and right and good and honest. There are so many layers of dysfunctional thoughts that fill our minds today. We need to strive to get back to a purity in our feelings, and there is only one way to do that…go deep into our hearts, to the place where God resides, into His Most Holy Place, and dwell there--listening to our Father’s Truth until the feelings that pour out of that place are clear and true and honest.

To even begin to have a pure heart, we need The Most Holy Place. To even begin to see God, we must start with the Holy Spirit who lives inside each believer. Jesus wants us to see God, because when we see beyond this world, God changes our perspective on all that surrounds us and how we feel about everything that happens in our lives. When we don’t focus on God, we become a muddy, mucky mess of trouble and frustration, full of hurt feelings, loveless emotions towards ourselves and others, unforgiving thoughts, and our own judgmental ideas about what is right and true and good. When we look at the world through our own eyes…look out!! Our vision is skewed and our feelings will rule…and the devil will say, “Walk this way…” and we will! Our feelings can run away into danger zones when we don’t have the purity of God at the core of them—they can be misleading. The Real Cure for what ails our emotions is Jesus Christ. When our Savior is at the center of all we feel, we will feel loved—which is the desire of every human heart, isn’t it?