Of all the places I get myself mired in sin, the quickest is in my thought life, but I suspect that is true for most of us. Lysa’s unit on thoughts has been a powerful one to me. Lysa begins this journey with “What do I do when I don’t feel God?” This has been a reoccurring theme in my thoughts and studies lately.
Man’s emotions verses God’s truths.
Because of this battle I’ve been having, the words of this chapter felt like daggers piercing my heart to the point I had to wake up and take real notice of what Lysa was saying. It began with the concept of being chosen. “In human terms, it seemed quite presumptuous to think God would pause to pay attention to me.” (page 154) I couldn’t agree more. But as I read the verses Colossians 3:12, Psalm 25:12 and John 15:19 I began to understand. God has chosen each of us.
“The problem is, we have been trained to process life based on the way we feel.” (page 155) This profound statement has affected me to the core. It plays over and over in my mind. And as I think about it, I have discovered Lysa is right. With so many things in life you hear people say, “I don’t feel like it.” I began looking at my life and found that I put things off because I don’t feel like doing them. Sin creeps in this way. I didn’t do my Bible study or pray because I didn’t feel like it. I ate that second piece of cake because I felt like it. I was ugly to the cashier because she upset me and I felt like being ugly back to her. I didn’t read to Johnny tonight because I was so tired and didn’t feel like it. (Oh boy! Watch your toes!)
This way of processing life has distorted how we process the truths of God. “We think we must feel love for love to exist. We think we must feel wanted to truly be chosen. We think we must feel God’s presence for Him to really be close. But God never meant for us to feel our way to Him.” (page 155) Our Lord wants us to learn to stand on the absolute truths from the Word of God no matter how we may “feel” at the time. “When I process life through my feeling, I am left deceived and disillusioned. When I process life through God’s truth, I am divinely comforted by His love and made confident in His calling on my life.” (page 155)
Lysa boils it all down to her quiet time with God. She uses running as her example. She does it each day because it’s good for her, not because she loves it. And she regrets it when she’s not able to do it. Oh, how many times I have gone to bed regretting not having spent time with God that day. Psalm 9:10 “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” Spending time with God, seeking Him, will fill the void that our “feelings” leave in us. God promises that He will not leave us empty-handed or empty-hearted.
Do you find that you have been processing life by your feelings like I have? I am working on standing firm on the truths of God’s word. How about you?
I LOVED Lysa's example about her running. It's exactly how I feel - some days I really look forward to my run and the "escape" for a little while. Other days I'm too tired to even tie my shoes - much less run in them :) But just as she said - never once have I regretted running and I always feel better afterwards. Now I'm feeling doublely convicted - my running and my quiet times have been lacking!!
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