Not About Me November {Day 4} & Brag on God Friday

My Emotions are Not About Me

Emotions
They point to what's going inside our head. Pretty smart of God if you ask me. They are a result of our thoughts which makes what God says about "taking your thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ" a big deal. Our thoughts effect much more than the inside of our skull.

I can think of two tendencies in dealing with emotions. Both of which are based in thinking it's "all about me".  We can act as though they are the authority or go to the other extreme of totally cutting them off. Neither of these options honor God.

Our emotions, given, gifted, created by God to be part of human existence, let us expereince God's character. We feel anger toward the evil of  girls being sold as sex slaves. We feel affection toward good friends, anticipation, excitement  and so on because we were made in His image. He feels. God feels. Jesus, "the fullness of diety in bodily form" wept. He wept. Shortest verse in the Bible, yet perhaps the most powerful. The God of the universe, broke into time and wept. He agonized in the garden. He delighted in the children. He was angry with the Pharisees. He longed for the disciples to have faith.

But since we are but flesh, we don't always have right feelings because we don't always have right perceptions. If we saw things rightly, in light of what's true, in light of the big eternal picture then our emotions would be a bit more reliable than they are. 

So what do we do with our emotions? How can we keep them in their proper place of not discarding them as though God didn't value them, but also not using them to make decision or idolizing them (living to always feel good emotions and never bad)?

Examine them, test them to see if they are based on truth. Or in other words, ask ourself, "What does this emotion show me I am believing, and ultimately believing about God?"

"Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Gen. 4:6-7

God challenged Cain to examine his emotions, not just be driven by them. "Why are you angry?" (He asks the same thing of Jonah in reguards to the plant He had provided him after it died). Then God tells him how to get his emotions in line with reality "do what is right" (which comes from a thought) and the feelings will follow. 

When what we thin is true, the emotions that result are a powerful display of God's heart. Our feelings are not about us, they are pointing to the One who made them, feels them and can heal them.

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and. Psalm 42:5
Laura

My reputation is not about me {Day 3}
What I know is not about me {Day 2} 
My ministry is not about me {Day 1}

I can't believe it's only Day 4 of the Not About Me November Challenge! I am learning so much from these incredibe ladies posts! Seriously great insights into things that just arn't about us. Things like, Relationship Status, Time, Faith, God's Love, God's Strategy, Friends, Sight & Blindness, Kids, Marriage, Our birth, Adventure, Position...

It's not too late to join the journey and join us in seeing God transform our hearts and minds as we behold Him and reflect on everything in life being about Him, not us. If you don't blog, feel free to join up through posting a facebook status or tweet with the hashtag #NotAboutMeNovember

Each weekday until Thanksgiving there is a new link up. Then tweet your post url with the hashtag #NotAboutMeNovember and grab the button to put in your post.

It's also Brag on God Friday!

So link up your posts that Brag On God and put a link to this list or put my button code (found on the side bar) on your post for people to find these other great ladies bragging about the greatness of God.

And the Permanent Brag On God Mosaic found under the Brag on God Friday's Link Up tab is still up. Head on over and help decorate the tab for the glory of God.

I'm linked with Spiritual Sundays, Favorite Things Friday,