Quote from Forum Archives on September 6, 2002, 9:49 am

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

For those of you who read the 1Corinthians7@welovegod.org edition
of Word for Today, you may wonder why we bother discussing so
many different areas about faith and spend relatively little time
discussing our losses and discouragements in relationships. I
know that such matters weigh heavily on the minds of many of
you. I've been through plenty of relationship discouragements
myself. In fact, though I am a contented person, if I were to
talk about discouragements and disappointments, I can easily find
those any day, most anywhere I look.

The world we live in is a breeding ground for disappointment and
discouragement, yet the God who made it provides everything we
need to overcome such things. It is the pursuit of God, on a
consistent, day by day, moment by moment, earnest, passionate
journey that is the focal point of our discussions, and I firmly
believe it is our destiny to seek the Lord with all our heart,
and He will satisfy our deepest yearnings.

You see, the world really isn't satisfying, it only provides a
temporary existence for us until Christ comes to bring His chosen
people back to Himself. The ones He chooses are the ones who,
having the choice, decide that Christ holds the answers to
everything we face.

We needn't live morbid, unsatisfied lives in this world,
however. Having the eternal hope that is in Christ gives us
every reason to rejoice, even as we face continual
disappointments in the day to day things we do. As long as
Christ is at the center of each thought and choice that we make,
we have nothing to fear. Our desire, therefore, ought to be to
seek Christ with all of our hearts, and He, being in very nature
God, will direct our paths, just as He promised (and just as we
read earlier this week).

Neil Anderson is starting a series about guarding our hearts and
examining our emotions. I'd like to share some of his messages
on that topic with you.

Your Brother in Christ,
Brian

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N E I L A N D E R S O N D A I L Y D E V O T I O N A L
from Freedom in Christ Ministries

September 5, 2002

GOD'S INDICATORS

Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the
springs of life (Proverbs 4:23).

I played sports as a young man and I have the scars on my knees
to prove it. The incision of my first knee surgery cut across a
nerve and I had no feeling around that area of my leg for several
months. Sometimes I would sit down to watch TV and, without
thinking, rest a cup of hot coffee on my numb knee. I couldn't
feel anything, but before long I could sure smell something: my
skin burning! For awhile I had a neat little brown ring on the
top of my knee.

Your emotions are to your soul what your physical feelings are to
your body. Nobody in their right mind enjoys pain. But if you
didn't feel pain, you would be in danger of serious injury and
infection. And if you didn't feel anger, sorrow, joy, etc. your
soul would be in trouble. Emotions are God's indicators to let
you know what is going on inside. They are neither good nor bad;
they're amoral, just part of your humanity. Just like you respond
to the warnings of physical pain, so you need to learn to respond
to your emotional indicators.

Someone has likened emotions to the red light on the dashboard of
a car which indicates an engine problem. There are several ways
you can respond to the red light's warning. You can cover it with
a piece of duct tape, "I can't see the light now," you say, "so I
don't have to think about the problem." You can smash out the
light with a hammer. "That'll teach you for glaring in my face!"
Or you can respond to the light as the manufacturers intended for
you to respond by looking under the hood and fixing the problem.

You have the same three options in responding to your emotions.
You can respond by covering over them, ignoring them, stifling
them. That's called suppression. You can respond by thoughtlessly
lashing out, giving someone a piece of your mind, flying off at
the handle. I call that indiscriminate expression. Or you can
peer inside to see what's going on. That's called acknowledgment.

For the next few days, we will explore these responses and see
why the first two are inappropriate.

Lord, thank You for my emotions. Give me the courage to be
emotionally honest and the grace to face the truth.

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Crosswalk.com. It is written by Neil Anderson at
< www.ficm.org >.

Additional devotionals are available from Crosswalk.com:
< devotionals.crosswalk.com >.
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=====
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: www.geocities.com/masinick/

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