Pastor Mike's thoughts

Thoughts on today's Christian world and how it fits into secular society.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

GOD'S INDICATORS

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

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. The decision is your.

Praying that we all respond to what God has given us,
Pastor Mike

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