2015/09/16 – Devotional
ACKNOWLEDGING YOUR EMOTIONS by Neil Anderson
Psalm 109:26, 30
Help me, O LORD my God. . . . With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to the LORD
Nancy was a college student with an inability to express the anger and resentment she felt. “My roommate gets to the point sometimes where she just explodes emotionally to let off steam. I have deep feelings too, but I’m not sure that a Christian is supposed to let off steam.”
I opened my Bible to Psalm 109:1-13 and read David’s angry words against an enemy. “What’s that doing in the Bible?” Nancy gasped. “How could David pray all those evil things about his enemy? That’s pure hatred.”
“David’s words didn’t surprise God,” I answered. “God already knew what he was thinking and feeling. David was simply expressing his pain and anger honestly to his God.”
I encouraged Nancy that when she is able to dump her hurt and hatred before God she probably won’t dump it on her roommate in a destructive way. I also reminded her that David was as honest about his need for God as he was about expressing his feelings. He closed the psalm by praying: “Help me, O LORD my God. . . . With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to the LORD” (verses 26, 30).
I think the way David acknowledged his feelings is healthy. If you come to your prayer time feeling angry, depressed or frustrated, and then mouth a bunch of pious platitudes as if God doesn’t know how you feel, do you think He is pleased? Not unless He’s changed His opinion about hypocrisy. In God’s eyes, if you’re not real, you’re not right.
Acknowledging your emotions also involves being real in front of a few trusted friends. During his travels, Paul had Barnabas, Silas or Timothy to lean on. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus expressed His grief to His inner circle of Peter, James and John. If you have two or three people like this in your life, you are truly blessed.
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that I can be real and honest with You. Help me develop a few trusted friends who will also welcome my emotional honesty.
This is in reference to the devotional Acknowledging Your Emotions,
With this devotional what I Gathered from reading this, was that it’s okay to be open to God and not hold any secrets or false testimony to our Lord that he already knows what’s going on inside of our hearts and our minds, even though we don’t realize that he has all the power to know what’s going on, us humans think we can fake God by pulling the wool over his eyes when in reality there’s nothing we can hide from God at all. And as it quotes its always good to be open and truthly to God that way we can heal our inside and truly become a full Christian because that’s what God wants is us to turn everything over to him, everyday I struggle with a lot of emotional problems but would Pastor Mike help and a lot of people’s prayers I’m trying to succeed and learning new ways of living, thank you very much Pastor Mike for submitting a beautiful devotional.
Very nice devotional today. Thanks