For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty Savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. Zephaniah 3. 17
This scripture was in my morning devotion today. As is usually the case, somehow it was tailored for my journey long before I set out to read it.
I have been thinking a lot about emotions and feelings lately, as they relate to myself and to others in our church community. I am finding that I hear more everyday from people who are so overcome by their emotions or feelings that they are unable to fully participate in the life God has for them. People are surrounded by encouragement, ministry opportunities, potential friendships. They couldn't be more surrounded in their church family by love, appreciation, support and resources. The platform is just sitting there waiting for them to step up and somehow they can't even see it. They are blinded and bound by a false cloud of emotions.
Emotions can be very convincing. I know. I have struggled as an introvert since I can remember. Seriously, if it were not for my parents pushing and pushing me from a young age through ministry opportunities and relationships, I would probably just stay home all the time and draw or something. Most people don't realize how introverted I am because I've had to learn to be disciplined about pushing through my feelings. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with being an introvert. In fact, there are beautiful aspects to that personality and introverts can have a special quality to their ministry that extroverts could never grasp. But, it's like any other part of your character. When you let it take hold and control your every decision, it will hold you back.
The same can be said for worriers, planners or cautious people (actually, I'm all of those too). Those of us who have the gift of organization and planning tend to want all the facts or see the "big picture" before we make a decision. The trouble with letting this lead you is that sometimes God just wants to lead you. Sometimes the decision He wants for you to make or the place He wants for you to wait doesn't make any sense on paper. It may even look disastrous on paper. I heard someone say the other day that God just seems to LOVE impossible situations. He LOVES them.
The scripture I mentioned above in Zephaniah says that our God is a mighty Savior and He wants to calm our fears and rejoice over us. He has a plan and that's all we need to know. Our job is to just do the next right thing that He has put in front of us.
I am learning, and have been learning for years, to wake up every morning and get control of my emotions and feelings. I have to be disciplined to give them to God, first thing. That's why, if you know me, you know that I wake up and spend a great deal of time first thing in the morning gathering my thoughts for the day. I just sit, drink my coffee and practice the discipline of taking back my day, from the start, before it gets away from me, and I spend time giving it to Him. Sometimes this doesn't happen until everyone is on the bus and napping but the goal is always first thing.
I don't want my life to control me. I don't want my fears about what could be or what has been in the past keep me from God's full potential for me. Life doesn't give me time to waste. I don't want every day to just be me and my thoughts. Yuck! Can you imagine?! Depressing. God knows me and He is my Creator and He will provide sufficient time for me to reflect and have quiet time (once my 3 kids are out of the home, right?). He loves me and has great plans for my life. I'm just going to follow Him, a few steps at a time.
