Overcoming Emotions

Humans are emotional creatures. It’s how we were made. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. And as a woman, I believe women tend to be more emotional than men, not all, but most. And lately I’ve been learning that it’s not a weakness. Ladies, you are made in the image of God, just as men are. Women carry certain traits that are a reflection of God’s image that men do not have and vice versa.

As for women being the more emotional creatures, God too is emotional. Dictionary.com defines emotion as “an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced.” God has sorrow and anger when His children sin, He has compassion on us in our sinful state, and He has joy when we choose to obey. God is an emotional God, but He is a constant God. His emotions do not change who He is, how He works, etc. As humans, we allow our emotions to control us. Our emotions and God’s emotions are not the same because we are sinful and God is not. However, we have emotions because God has emotions and we were created in the likeness of God. We were created “like” Him.

So now that we’ve established that our emotions are not a weakness, we can talk about controlling them.

As sinful beings, our emotions don’t always steer our hearts and minds the right way. Sometimes we get angry (which isn’t a sin), but allowing the anger to fester causes us to lash out, say things we shouldn’t, or act sinfully. Sometimes we get sad (which isn’t a sin), but allowing sadness to linger can cause us to become depressed.

Side bar: There is a lot of debate these days on whether or not depression is a sin. Personally, I don’t believe it is. However, I believe that to allow yourself to wallow in depression and sadness can cause you to sin in other areas, like self-harm. The Bible says that our body is God’s temple. I don’t think that allowing yourself to stay depressed is a way of taking care of God’s temple. When you realize you are depressed, I believe you should take action to get it under control, whether that’s through counseling, medical treatment, or talking to God and reading His word. Sometimes it takes action only as simple as telling someone who can get you the help you need. You will find what your mind and body needs when you take steps to heal it.

Continuing on…

Our emotions aren’t a weakness and they aren’t necessarily a sin. But as Christians, we have to learn how to control them in order to keep them from becoming a weakness in our Christian walk or turning into sin. Self-control isn’t easy for everyone and it can be one of the hardest things to learn or develop. Here are ways that I learned how to control my emotions and things I do to cope with how I feel:


1. Talk it out with God.

When the feelings come on strong, good or bad, I always take them to God. God has a way of putting how we feel into perspective. Whether we’re excited about something and our first reaction is to start making big plans, or if we’re upset about something and we want to react negatively, God can shed light on how we feel and how we should respond.


2. Turn to God’s Word.

The Bible has become my biggest resource for life. It is literally a life manual that we can carry around with us everywhere. If you don’t have the Bible App, stop right now and download it. Now, a lot of you are probably wondering how the Bible is going to “magically” help you when you get really upset about something. Where do I turn? What book of the Bible talks about being sad? Well here’s the good news. The internet has made life really easy for us. One of my favorite ways to seek out what God says about a particular subject is to go to www.openbible.info/topics or just google search the phrase “What does the Bible say about ______.” Openbible.info will give you a list of verses that talk about any word or phrase you type in. I use this tool every day for every emotion I feel that I need God to speak to. For example, when I’m feeling really down about a situation, I look up what the Bible has to say about encouragement. If I’m stressing or anxious about something, I look up what the Bible says about peace. No matter what the situation is, you can bet God has SOMETHING to say to you about it and if you look hard enough, you will find it.


Emotions can be a tricky thing, and controlling them can be even trickier. But what I love so much about God is that He is not an elusive God. He wants to be our “go to.” He wants to be sought after but He wants more to be found. He wants to know us and for us to know Him so much that He wrote us a love letter years and years before we were even thought of. If we make the decision to really go all in for Him, He will reveal Himself in every aspect of our lives if we allow Him, even the tough ones, like emotions. And the Bible is our key to knowing Him.

Jeremiah 29:13
You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with your whole heart.

Moving Mountains

I was facing a huge mountain. A mountain I had lived with my entire life. A mountain than seemed to disappear at times in my life, seemed to have resolved itself, but would reappear, seemingly bigger than ever at the most inopportune times of my life. To be honest, the mountain usually appeared when everything seemed to be otherwise going really great.

I have spent 25 years analyzing the mountain. Trying to understand it, trying to move it, trying to explain it. I’ve made excuses, I’ve made arguments, and I’ve cried. I’ve cried a lot actually.

But here it is. Still standing. Taller than ever. Scarier than it’s ever been. Looming over everything and everyone I love, threatening to take it all away.

To say I hate this mountain is an understatement. And yet I’m so ashamed to say that I hate it. I’ve tried to give it to God many times. I’ve tried to fix it. I’ve tried to “be better” in hopes that God would see my efforts and just take it away. I’ve tried everything and quite frankly, I’m tired of “trying.”

But no amount of trying to fix it or be better or crying has moved my mountain.

But tonight I unlocked the key to moving the mountain and looking back, it was the most simple thing I have ever done.

I laid in the floor of my room and I cried. And I poured my heart out to God. I told Him all the ways in which this mountain had hurt me. I told Him all the ways that I had tried to fix the mountain, move the mountain, appease the mountain. I told Him everything. And you know what I got back after telling God everything?

He already knew. And He loves me. And He’s holding me.

That’s it.

But that’s all I needed tonight for this 25 year, monster of a mountain to move. That’s it. I needed God to tell me that He loves me and that He’s holding me. Of course I already knew that, but tonight I needed to feel His love and His strength. I needed to sense His presence. That’s it. I did nothing but lay on the floor crying and telling God how I felt. I was raw and honest and broken at His feet and He came down and strengthened me and held me.

And just like that, this mountain, this 25 year old, terrifying mountain was moved in my life.

Now here’s the catch: my situation has not changed one bit.

What has changed for me is my heart. My outlook. My faith. My trust. My focus.

The mountain will need moving again tomorrow. And tomorrow I will lay it at God’s feet again. I will cry again if I need to. I will pour out my heart to Him again tomorrow if I have to. And I don’t doubt for one second that my God will again move my mountain because I know how He loves me.

And I have faith that, in time, God will make something of this mountain. He will change it or use it for His glory in some way. But until then, I will give Him this mountain every day and I will lay my life down at His feet every day and pour my heart out to Him and He will strengthen me and love me and hold me. And God will continue to move my mountain.

What mountains do you need God to move? Have you really laid them at your Savior’s feet? Have you poured your heart out to God and trusted Him to take care of the mountain in your life?

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Matthew 21:22

This verse is often misunderstood. It doesn't mean that whatever we want will be given to us in the way that our little brains believe we should receive. It means that if we truly believe that God has everything in control and that He will take care of us, if we pray in full faith that God will take action on our behalf, then He will take care of us. He will give us what we want, but sometimes it's not always in the way that we want it.

Believe and you shall receive what you ask for in prayer. Believe that God will move your mountain.

Believe it.

When People Ask For What You Can't Give...

Acts 3

1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a man ame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.”5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

I read this passage this morning and it immediately struck me: sometimes you meet people (like the beggar) who ask things of you that you don't have (like money), but you do have something they need... 

Have you ever encountered a cashier asking for donations for some charity? What about the man at the street corner with the cardboard sign? Or how about that couple that you know is struggling in more ways than just financially and you just don't know what to say to them so you try avoiding conversation completely?

Everyday we meet people who have problems that we can do nothing about. It's not just about finances, either. Your $5 isn't going to save all of the children with cancer or get the homeless man back on his feet, or stop the fighting in a married couples' lives over the financial struggles they've been having. And I'm not saying not to help out when you can - not at all. But you can't solve all the hurt, pain, sickness, and fighting going on in the world...

or can you?

I've realized that as Christians, what you DO have can solve all of their problems and then some they didn't even know they had. What you DO have is Jesus.

Peter looked at that beggar and knew he didn't have the money he needed to support him or even enough to buy his next meal. But what He did have was Jesus and by sharing that with the man, Jesus healed him, which solved the problem of why he was poor (because he could not work). Jesus gave the man his ability to walk again. Jesus came in and restored his life. But all because Peter heard him crying out and instead of looking away and avoiding him because he didn't have any money to give, Peter stopped to share Jesus with him.

Think for a moment... who are the people in your life who are crying out for help? Who are the people you encounter every day and occasionally try to avoid because you think you don't have what they're asking for? I challenge you to pray and ask God to open your eyes and heart to those people today so that you can stop and share Jesus with them today.

Nothing is impossible for God. Whether it's a sickness, financial problems, marital problem, etc, God can solve it with one healing touch. We need to be sensitive to His leading and to the opportunities that are in front of us daily and the way we have that sensitivity is through constant communication with God through prayer and His Word.

Find the problem you can't solve and share Jesus. You may be sharing the one thing someone needs most and didn't even know to ask for. It sounds so simple, but you could be saving their life.

It's Not About You

You've heard it before...

"It's not about you."

And they're right.. it's not. But do we really believe it? We say we do. But the way we live shows what we truly believe. And I have to ask... do you live it?

I just started reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan for the second time. The first time I got distracted and stopped reading halfway through and I just needed to take a breather and start over. That book is... wow. I can't recommend it enough. If you are looking to turn your "Christian lifestyle" upside down, please please please pick up a copy of either Radical by David Platt or Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Those books are great.

So in the first chapter of the book, Francis just talks about God in a general sense and there are a few quotes that I found to be incredibly challenging and honestly mind-blowing.

"We don't get to decide who God is."

Wow. It doesn't matter how we perceive Him, what we think of Him, or what we believe He is. Some say that any description of God is accurate as long as we're sincere. And that's just not true. God is who He is and He is who He has always been before time existed and that will never change. Our little minds can't change it. Wow. That's a lot to absorb. It's actually too much for us to completely understand or comprehend, but that's ok. That is the way God designed us to be.

"Not being able to fully understand God is frustrating, but it is ridiculous for us to think we have the right to limit God to something we are capable of comprehending. What a stunted, insignificant god that would be! If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can. God is so much bigger, so far beyond our time-encased, air/food/sleep-dependent lives."

Wow.

Just reflecting on how incredible God is and our inability to even comprehend or understand who He is, much less, what He's like or what He thinks gives me an awe and reverence for Him that I think we as Christians forget to have most days. We go on about these lives, OUR lives (so we think) and we live like everything is all about us - our jobs, our families, our income, our goals, our dreams, our futures... And if we'd just stop for 10 minutes and reflect on WHO GOD IS, I think it would take us all back a notch and remind us what this life is actually all about.

We were created to bring God glory. I find that in the daily routine most people have, very little glory is given to our Creator. I could go on for hours and pages and days about how we can much better live for God, but the purpose of this post today was just to stop you and remind you what life is about.

It's not about me and it's not about you. Your life isn't yours at all. It's God's. It's all God's. And I challenge you to start living like it, no matter how difficult the transition or the change will be for you.

I'm sure that when Jesus was finished being beaten beyond recognition and spit on and mocked and he was handed that heavy cross to carry to the place he would die for our sins that it was hard. I'm sure it didn't feel good. I'm sure he didn't WANT to. I'm sure it was embarrassing to be parading publicly in the condition that he was in. But he did it because he loves you and he did it as payment so that we could live eternally in Heaven with him if we just accepted that gift of salvation from him.

It wasn't fun and it wasn't easy, but he did it because he loves you. Can you just live for him? Do you love him enough to make that choice, that sacrifice? Can you just take a minute to start over and change your thinking and decide to stop making this life all about you? I challenge you to make the tough decision to give up your self-centered life and turn your attention and focus every day, every hour, every SECOND to bringing glory to God.

I wonder what our lives as Christians would look like if we truly lived solely and simply to bring glory to God.