Don’t put your feelings in a box
- Kyle Snyder: Live on Purpose
- June 4, 2020
- 878
“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” —Mother Teresa.
How are you doing today? Are you happy, sad, mad, maybe all or none of these? How we feel often determines what kind of mood we are in.
Some people say that is why we can’t trust our feelings. I think some of that is true, but it can’t and shouldn’t be taken too far. I know people who won’t let themselves feel at all, and they always end up as very cold people that sooner or later run off almost everybody they know.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have people who wear their hearts on their sleeve. Both kinds of people are in the wrong. We need our feelings to tell us when something is amiss, to relate with other people and to experience fully what love is.
Love is more then a feeling; it also is a choice we have to make daily. We know even Jesus had feelings about not going to the cross. He prayed to his Father, if there was any other way, may it be done. However, because he chose to love us in our sin, he went to the cross willingly.
Jesus’ humanity came out, but his humanity was subject to his divinity. Look at when Jesus fed the 5,000. The Bible said he had compassion on them. So if Jesus had feelings and was willing to show them, how can our feelings be wrong? It is good to feel the need to feed hungry people, and that is what Jesus did.
Jesus did still go to the cross to pay for my and your sins, for he knew only a blood sacrifice would wash away all the sins of humanity. Jesus knew the truth, even though he felt from time to time the opposite of what the truth was. He still did what he knew to be right. The truth also made him feel a certain way.
If Jesus is our example, we should let our feelings out when need be. Don’t ever think your feelings are something to be put away in a box somewhere. We need to deal with them when they come up. The Bible talks about taking every thought into captivity and making it obedient to Christ. May I suggest we also do it to our feelings as well?
If our feelings line up with the word of God, that is good. However, if our feelings lead us down a very dark path, we know we are being lied to.
Ask Christ for help to know if the feelings you have are right or not. Some feelings, we just know it. If wrong, just ask him to take them away.
If we feel the whole world is against us, remember we are not that important that the whole world needs to conspire against us.
If you feel nobody likes you, write down five to 10 people who do. They may not be close, but they talk to us every time they see us.
Our feelings are important, but they also can misguide us. Look at them carefully with the Lord’s help and never think feelings don’t matter, because they do.