"REdirecting our Emotions"

"Why so down cast, O my soul?!”   ...asks the Psalmist.  God wants His people to know that it is very often, maybe daily, that we allow our emotions to dictate our lives, usually without being aware of it.  This is always the case, even during times of relative societal stability.  Life is always hard.  As Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble.”  However, it seems and feels so much more pertinent right now in our chaotic world, especially with the terrible COVID distancing which is so painful to endure!  We were not meant to be alone or separate from each other. 

Let me encourage us all, with God’s help, to consider our need to bear down even harder in our effort to rely on God by considering the following practical suggestions.  Often, we unconsciously let ourselves become a product of how our subconscious has been reacting recently to the difficult circumstances of our practical life.  We FEEL the negative reactions we’ve been experiencing subconsciously, in reaction to the specific details encountered over the last day or two, in the various areas of our life.  We feel it subconsciously, but we don’t stop to think about it.  We just move on, with our day.
 
What we do NOT feel, is how the truths of the Bible should be making us feel!  ...such as the truth that God is taking care of us right now. (John 10:28)  ...or that He is so in love with us, right now! (John 15:9; Zephaniah 3:17)  ...or that He is working all things for our good, to those who love Him! (Romans 8:28)  These are the things that should be dictating our feelings! (Philippians 4:4)  With His help we can and need to keep proactively leaning more heavily on these truths than we do on our fears from our circumstances.  However, we keep forgetting and leaning more on our circumstances.  This results in us experiencing what ever our latest circumstances TELL us to feel. 
 
Well, God has news for us!  That is not how He wants us to live.  Far from it.  Hallelujah!  He wants us to live daily, even moment by moment, (as Psalm 42 coaches us) by actively redirecting our feelings away from our  circumstances (along with the devil’s whisperings about those circumstances), and to redirect them instead toward the truths of the Bible.   ....Jesus rose from the grave! (Matthew 28:9)  ...God, our adoring Father, has adopted us and is crazy in love with us!  (Galatians 4:5)
 
Let us, today and every day, be people who live proactively FEELING the glorious truths which God has promised to us.  Let us be animated by the truth, motivated by the truth, and comforted by the truth.  Jesus has overcome the world for us! (John 16:33b)  He loves us dearly and is guiding our lives today.  So, let us rejoice!  Amen.