Let’s Talk About Me…Or Not!
Feelings. Emotions. Why do we give them such a voice in our lives? Because if we are honest, often our feelings and emotions take us places that we should not go…
Why don’t we, as believers, lift the bar higher? Instead of living out of our flesh, why don’t we aspire to live out of our spirit?
I shared with you in a previous post, How A Snowball Saved My Soul: A Story of Forgiveness (Part 1), that after several years of abuse I began to hate men. Hate. A word I won’t even use anymore unless I speak of the devil. Notice I said I began to hate…
Begin: come into being or have its starting point at a certain time or place; appear, arise, become apparent, make an appearance, come into existence, commence, develop.
When I was confronted with abuse I had a choice – do I follow my feelings and emotions, or do I choose to forgive and find healing? Unfortunately at that time I chose to follow my feelings and that is where the deception began. At that point my emotions were such that I wanted to kill every man alive, save my dad and brothers. I’m not kidding.
Now what if I had acted on those feelings?
The news is full of stories – mostly tragic ones – where people gave into their emotions.
Why do we give our emotions a voice?
We all have the classic picture in our minds of what a counseling session looks like: a stern looking therapist with glasses and a notepad, and someone in emotional pain writhing on a couch. And this is where we have come to believe that we will find healing when we give our emotions a voice.
Not so, according to God.
The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. Proverbs 18:21
According to God, what we speak will bring life or death into our situation. And there will be consequences for what we say. Period. This is a spiritual law. So if our mouth is constantly full of words of anger, bitterness, fear, slander, gossip, envy – all fruits of the flesh – then we will reap these things. If our lives seem to be nothing but an emotional wrecking ball, wreaking havoc wherever we turn, then we must examine our words.
Our lives will move in the direction of our thoughts, which turn into words, then become our very actions.
Back to my story. I was abused and I allowed a seed of satan to be planted…all men are evil. I didn’t get to this place all at once, for it took time for the seed to germinate. Each mistreatment by an offender fed my hate and the seed grew.
However, I firmly believe that I did not resort to a place of violence for I did not give my emotions a voice.
Remember: we have a thought, we begin to speak it, and then our actions follow. Because I rarely spoke of my hate for men (trust me, if an opportunity did arise I was glad to share), I believe that I did not get to the place of acting on my emotions.
The way of the world says to share your feelings with everyone. On every form of social media there is and to whomever will listen. And there are plenty of people that love to hear the dirt. We have come to a place that we share our worst thoughts about people, never even considering who we may be hurting in the process. But hey! Who really cares? I hurt, therefore I speak. Right?!?
Wrong. God has something better for you. He has a path of healing. His path leads to the cross. And our Healer is Jesus. Come to the cross and find healing for your soul!
As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you… Isaiah 66:13
Beloved, when we give our emotions a voice they begin to consume our every day. Every moment. Every thought. We elevate our situation over the very Word of God. And when we do that, His Word has become ineffectual. As born-again believers, our bodies are to be a living sacrifice for God and His glory – and this includes our tongue.
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2
You have a story to tell and the world needs to hear it. You have a story that rises above the circumstances of your life if you let it. Jesus says that we have an enemy, and that enemy is often a friend of our emotions.
satan comes to kill, steal and destroy. Do you feel like your joy has been stolen? Peace? Health, prosperity or relationships? Examine your words. For Jesus also says in the very same verse, that He has come to give abundant life (John 10:10). And where did we just read that life comes from? Look again at this verse…
Death and life are in the power of the tongue… Proverbs 18:21
Will your story be one of victory, or one of a victim?
Go ahead. Step up to the mic, please. The world is waiting to hear your story.
CHOOSE LIFE!
