When our feelings get upside down

It was one of those weeks…couple of weeks, actually.

Was I upright…or upside down?

Where am I anyway??

What am I doing?

Huh?

Oh.  Lord, please help me!  What is wrong??

Groan.

Like I’ve mentioned before, its especially difficult, as women, not to live by our feelings.  I don’t know about you, but I need that reminder more often than I care to admit.

When my hormones and emotions are all out of whack I start questioning my spiritual state.

Lord?  Help me!

So the other day, as my brain was swirling and my thinking was just not right, I did my devotions…and something (Someone?!) made me think about a book I had read several years ago.  It had been such a blessing to me then…but I had forgotten all about it – (why do I do that??  I don’t know!).  But the Lord knew I needed to read it and be reminded of the sweet truths in it!  Maybe you some of you struggle with some of the same things I do.  Or maybe you know someone else who does.  Whatever the case, I just pray this will be a blessing and encouragement to anyone who reads it.

As I read through this book again, I couldn’t help but think that the only reason the author could write so boldly about the things that he did, was because he struggled with the same things too.  And God helped him, so he took the time to write them down, and now it blesses and helps us years later.  Do you find comfort in that?  I do!!   Thank you, F.B. Meyer for your book The Secret of Guidance…thank you for Calling Back!

I almost don’t know where to start.  As I open the book, I want to tell you what he said here…and there…oh and over there!  So first let me just say – buy the book!!  The whole thing is a great blessing and you won’t regret having it on your bookshelf.  🙂

Today I’ll share with you what he has to say about emotions/our feelings…since that’s what we were talking about in the beginning…

…We must remember, also, that emotion is no true test of our spiritual state.  Rightness of the heart often shows itself in gladness of heart, just as bodily health generally reveals itself in exuberant spirits.  But is is not always so.  In other words, absence of joy does not always prove that the heart is wrong.  It may do so, but certainly not invariably.  Perhaps the nervous system may have been overtaxed, as Elijah’s was in the wilderness when, after the long strain of Carmel and his flight was over, he lay down upon the sand and asked to die — a request that God met, not with rebuke, but with food and sleep.  Perhaps the Lord has withdrawn the light from your landscape in order to see whether He was loved for Himself or merely for His gifts.  Perhaps the discipline of life has culminated in the Gethsemane, where the bitter cup is being placed to the lips by the Father’s hand, though only a Judas can be seen; and in the momentary anguish caused by the effort to renounce the will, it is only possible to lie upon the ground, with strong crying and tears, which the night wind bears to God.  Under such circumstances as these, exuberant joy is out of place.  Somber colors become the tried and suffering soul.  High spirits would be as unbecoming here as gaiety in the home shadowed by death.  Patience, courage, and faith are the suitable graces to be manifested at such times…

What a blessed thought.

Then he goes on to say…

Cease to consider how you feel, and build on the immovable rock of what Jesus is,

and has done, and is dong, and will do for you, world without end.

I love that!!  I have this quote written in my little notebook.  So good!  And how I need this reminder!

Now these next thoughts are so, so good, too…

Perhaps you live too much in your feelings, and too little in your will.   We have no direct control over our feelings, but we have over our will.  Our wills are ours, to make them God’s.  God does not hold us responsible for what we feel, but for what we will.  In His sight we are not what we feel, but what we will.  Let us, therefore, not live in the summerhouse of emotion, but in the central citadel of the will, wholly yielded and devoted to the will of God.

At the Table of the Lord, the soul is often suffused with holy emotion; the tides rise high, the tumultuous torrents of joy knock loudly against the floodgates as if to beat them down, and every element in the nature joins in the choral hymn of rapturous praise.  But the morrow comes, and life has to be faced in the grimy countinghouse, the dingy shop, the noisy factory, the godless workroom.  As the soul compares the joy of yesterday with the difficulty experienced in walking humbly with the Lord, it is inclined to question whether it is quite so devoted and consecrated as it was.   But, at such a time, how fair a thing it is to remark that the will has not altered its position by a hair’s breadth, and to look up and say:

“My God, the spring tide of emotion has passed away like a summer brook; but in my heart of hearts, in my will, You know I am as devoted, as loyal, as desirous to be only for You, as in the blessed moment of unbroken retirement at Your feet.”

This is an offering with which God is well pleased.  And thus we may live a calm, peaceful life.

Ahhh.  To live in God’s peace…every day.

There’s not much I can add to F.B. Meyer’s thoughts.  Read…and reread them.  And if you need to, write them down and put them at your kitchen sink or in your little notebook (you have started one, right?? 😉 ) – that way you can see them often and be reminded of these simple, but blessed truths.

And when the ole enemy, the devil, comes around with his lies (you do know that what he tells you is lies, don’t you?!), you can look to heaven and say,

“Lord, my feelings are telling me this, and this, is true.  But Lord, Your Word says…”

And get out your Bible and read God’s many promises.  Read them out loud!  Read them and believe them!

They are true and always will be!!

Then go get your hymnbook and start singing –

Standing on the promises of Christ my King, through eternal ages let His praises ring…

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God, my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee…

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear…

O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace…

Rejoice, the Lord is King!  Your Lord and King adore; Rejoice, give thanks, and sing, and triumph evermore...

To God be the glory, great things He hath done…

Oh how good our God is!!  And oh so faithful!  Let us praise Him and show His faithfulness to all generations!