Hebrews 10:37-38
In just a
little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay… But my righteous
one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. —
The definition of- shrink
back – is to pull away from a source of disgust or fear. To retract.
cringe, flinch, recoil, wince, shrink, - to draw back,
First, I want to say that
today was an extremely trying day; one that brought disappointing news that at
first made me angry, then I cried, but then despair wanted to set in.
As I tried to think
through the repercussions, my emotions started to shut down, and I became numb
to the situation.
As the day wore on into
the night I started to realize that:
Intellectually we believe
God is good. All the time. But sometimes, our feelings just won’t catch up, our
mind tries to say it’s true, but emotionally we don’t sense it.
So, how do we take what our
mind believes about God – that He is good, that He cares, and that He cares
about us – and make that belief affect our feelings enough to help us.
Because truly there are
times when… like what I experienced today…
When hardships can seem to
be so hard that we have to fight not to feel numb.
And even when we fight it
we still feel numb; physically; emotionally and spiritually…
The reason is, because…
there is a war waging for
our hearts, to shut them down…
To disable those who love
Jesus… and especially those who are surrendered.
And here are a few things
to remember—
1. Remember that emotions
are liars—feelings change rapidly. They are too dependent on our physiological
chemistry, our diet, our rest patterns, our environment and our circumstances
and even the weather!
Don’t trust feelings! They
only occasionally tell the truth.
2. Hold on to truth over
emotions—Truth makes us free. Emotions deceive us. Go to God’s Word and tie
yourself off, like a guy tying off to a pillar in a hurricane. Anchor yourself
to what God says it absolute and true.
3. Listen to God over
emotions—Let your emotions howl. Let feelings rage like a midnight thunder
storm. Through it all, God’s still small voice will keep you in a fixed, safe
position. The storm will pass. Eventually your emotions will come back into
line with truth—and then you will be really glad you didn’t let them lead!
4. Think beyond your
emotions— another day will come and you will look back on today, glad the
feelings are gone. But the decisions you make today will follow you. Think
beyond today’s emotions to the long lasting, devastating impact that wrong
decisions will leave. Long after the emotions are gone, the consequences of bad
decisions will continue to unfold.
5. Speak out to God—God
responds to audible requests for His help! Open your mouth, lift your voice,
and talk out loud to Him. I know—it feels weird, but it’s a biblical reality
that God responds to this kind of flagrant faith!
9. Patiently endure—The
Bible has a lot to say about enduring. It is God’s call for us to sometimes
just endure—to patiently, faithfully hold onto Him until He stems the tide of
trial. He builds and blesses those who endure.
I pray this has helped
someone else going through a time of disappointment and hardship…
Because though we all know
life happens… it can at time be difficult to enjoy it!
But we cannot shrink back
from or pull away from the One who came to give us life…
For the righteous will
live by faith!
No comments:
Post a Comment