emotions

28
Apr
2021
The Meditations of My Heart

The Meditations of My Heart

I love spring. Everything starts to get green, and the yellows, reds, and whites of the flowers and trees begin to give off their radiant beauty. The drab brown of winter is replaced by the spectacular colors of spring. I have some beautiful tulips that have added some beauty to one of my flower beds that I don’t remember coming up in previous years. I love the surprises of bulbs.

From my kitchen, I can see the flower bed that is the most work of all my flower beds, but it also has the most beauty. It always needs to be weeded or flowers dead headed. I spent an afternoon weeding it and sprucing it up. It still needs a bit more work, but it looks so much better now. Getting rid of the weeds and the dead leaves from last year brings out the beauty and the fresh colors of spring. As I write this, I am looking out my window and enjoying the beauty of this flower bed and am thankful I put the work into cleaning it up. My back was sore after I finished, but the pain is worth the enjoyment.

Psalms 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

The meditations of my heart are like my flower bed. As I meditate on the sweet things of Scripture there is beauty that comes from my mouth and my life. When I meditate on the things that are opposite of what Philippians 4:8 says we are to think on, the weeds and dead leaves are what comes from my mouth and life.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Phil. 4:8).

Have you found yourself thinking and meditating on things that are opposite of this list in Phil 4:8? Thinking about lies, dishonorable, impure/dirty, shameful, humiliating, and decrepit things. These are the weeds and the dead leaves that clutter our hearts and our minds.

Most of us don’t consider that our thoughts contribute to our health, our viewpoint on things, the words that come from our mouths, our sleep, and the actions that we perform.

The meditations in our hearts impact our lives.

So we must be intentional about the meditations of our hearts. Many times we are not aware of the things we think. They are fleeting thoughts that come and go without us even realizing it. Yet, when we begin to be intentional with our thoughts, the beauty of intentional meditation and prayer changes our lives.

The beauty of the tulips did not happen overnight. The bulbs were planted years ago with forethought. Now that all the dead leaves and weeds are gone they are better able to give off their vibrant beauty. It is with intention that the bulbs were planted and it was with intention that I cleared the bed of all the ugly debris.

So we must be intentional that the meditations of our hearts are “acceptable in your sight, O Lord.” (Psa. 19:14). He wants to help us with this as well so the Psalmist draws our attention to this fact by using two more names for our Lord. “Our Rock and our Redeemer.”

Jesus saved us and rescued us from our sin. He wants to continue to rescue us from the sin that so quickly comes to our thoughts. The sins we so quickly seek to meditate on.

Be intentional on what you meditate on. There is no better thing to “chew on” and dwell on that God’s Word. Pray it back to Him. Have a conversation throughout your day with God about His word. Don’t let you morning devotion time be lost memory throughout your day, rather let it be a lasting and impactful memory throughout your day.

Psalms 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

 

 

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24
Feb
2021
Idols of the Heart

Idols of the Heart

Throughout the Old Testament, we see God commanding the people of Israel to “have no other gods before Him.” (Exodus 20:3). Yet, throughout the Old Testament we see the Israelites time and time again worshipping idols. I am currently reading through the book of Exodus and just read the account of the Golden Calf in Exodus 34. I look at these people and I think, “How quickly you have forgotten what God has done for you.” How could they forget the 10 plagues, crossing the Red Sea on dry ground, watching the Egyptian army that was coming after them be swallowed up by that Red Sea, manna, quail, water from a rock, etc.? As we come to Exodus 34, we see that they did. They forgot. All the miracles that God had done for them, quickly left their memories and they made a golden calf to worship instead.

We often think that the Old Testament stories are from a different era, a different time period, a different culture and have no relevance to today, but that is so far from the truth. These stories are very relevant to today. We may not worship a Golden Calf or make idols of Baal or other gods, but we can still be guilty of idolatry.

Often times, we think of current idols as “things.”  Things like a car, a boat, a house, a cottage on the lake, our phones, or some other inanimate object. Yet, if we dig deeper into these things, we will find that there is something else at the base of our desire for these things.

Last week, I wrote about “Think about what you are thinking about” and asked you to trace back the emotions you are having to your thoughts and then to trace those emotions back to what you are wanting.

I have written about our emotions and thoughts in a blog last year as well. Please follow this link to read more.

When we follow the trail, we will see what our idols are. Start with your emotions. Then ask yourself, “What is it that you are thinking?” This leads to our wants. Once we dig into what we want, it will lead us to our present day idols.

Emotions – Thinking – Wanting – Idols

No one really wants to go through this process. Who wants to be told that they have idols of the heart that they are worshipping? No one does, but do you ever feel like you are empty? Maybe you feel like you are in search of things that always seem out of your grasp. Striving for that sense of satisfaction or happiness that you never can attain. That is because you are seeking after an idol.

Here is a list of present day idols of the heart that many of us seek and search after:

  • Security
  • Affection/love
  • Attention
  • Satisfaction
  • Comfort/refuge/ease of life
  • Joy/happiness
  • Approval

Thinking back to what I wrote about last week – you don’t receive the recognition for an accomplishment that is truly yours to receive. What idol could we be seeking? Approval or Satisfaction

What about when your friends treat you poorly? Approval or Attention

What about when you have a “discussion” with someone and they don’t seem to care about your point of view? Love, approval.

What about when things seem too hard? Comfort, ease of life.

What about when a relationship seems too hard and yet you know that you have a responsibility to help that person see Christ? Comfort/ ease of life

God wants us to have no other gods before Him, because He knows that we will never find joy and happiness when we are worshipping these other idols.

God does not need us to worship Him. We need to worship Him.

God knows that the more we seek after the idols of our hearts, the emptier we will be. The more we seek after God and seek to worship Him and Him alone, the more joyful and fulfilled we will be.

Evaluate your emotions. What are they telling you? What are you thinking? What are you wanting? What idols of the heart are you worshipping?

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:1-4)

(There is a great book and sermon series by Brad Bigney on this topic of Idols of the Heart called Gospel Treason. This link is to the first sermon in his series on this topic.)

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17
Feb
2021
Think about what you think about

Think about what you think about

Last week, I wrote about Scripture memorization and the transformation that it has had in my life. The transformation that has taken place is not that I can better remember where I laid my glasses, rather it has made an alteration in my thinking.

Do you ever stop to think about you’re are thinking about?

What do you think about? Have you ever taken stock in even those fleeting thoughts that are hardly even perceptible, and yet they are? I know it seems like a strange question to wonder if you have thought about what you think about, but our thoughts impact every aspect of our lives whether we realize it or not.

Let’s consider a few things that we all at some point or other have thought. “That’s not fair.” I know we have all thought this one. Someone else gets recognition and you worked just as hard. It may have even been your hard work that this person received accolades for and there was no acknowledgement of you. What about the friends that are disrespectful to you and say things that are not true, and your actions toward them have been nothing but kind and honorable. Have we thought, “That’s not fair?” Or even “what did I do to deserve this?”

I am sure many of us have thought, “This is so hard. I can’t do this.” Whatever the obstacle is in front of us, it appears to be too difficult. It takes too much effort. Whether it is the challenging friendship, the difficult child (or puppy right now in my caseJ), a difficult spouse, or a grueling job. The list could go on, but there are many things in life that feel so overwhelming and we think, “I can’t do this.”

As we allow ourselves to think these thoughts repeatedly, they begin to impact our emotions. Our emotions begin to be a byproduct of our thoughts. Again, this is not something that we are even aware of.

What are we feeling when we experience the “That’s not fair” thought? If someone else receives recognition that we should receive, we might experience anger. What is at the root of that anger? We wanted the recognition, but what is at the root of us wanting the recognition? We feel like we deserve it. Rather than being happy for the other person that received the recognition, we want our fair share.

What about when you are in a “discussion” with someone and you begin to feel angry because they do not see your point of view on things. What is it you are thinking: “I just want them to understand what I am saying. I want them to see my point of view. I want them to agree with me. I just want to be heard.” When the other person does not see things our way, we get angry.  Did you ever stop to think about what they are trying to say? See their point of view? Actually listen to them and seek to understand with more clarity? That anger you are experiencing is rooted in you wanting your way.

When things are harder than you thought they should be and these circumstances that you are confronted with seem too hard, what are you thinking? “I can’t do this. Why are things not going the way I thought they should be?” These thoughts can lead to feelings of anxiety or depression.

So what are you thinking? What do you need to do? When you experience an emotion, you need to evaluate it. What are you thinking? What are you wanting?

Take some time to evaluate what you are thinking and what you are wanting. Begin to evaluate these emotions, and trace them back to your thoughts.

“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Prov. 23:7).

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16
Dec
2020

Which is

Over the course of the last two years, I have been training to become a certified Biblical Counselor. During this training process, I have read many books, memorized Scripture, and been mentored by a wonderful and wise man and woman. During this process of training, the Biblical principle that has convicted me the most is that of idolatry. I have always thought of idolatry like the idols in the Old Testament. As mentioned in Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or the likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Today in America, I don’t think there are too many people that are carving images out of stone and bowing down and worshipping them or sacrificing to them. I always thought of idolatry in modern day America as worshipping your car, or money, or some other treasure that you valued highly.

I felt pretty good about myself because even though I really like my car and my house and even my bike, I didn’t worship them. I never bowed down to them. I didn’t sacrifice anything to them. I didn’t pray to them. I always knew in my heart that if I had to get rid of any of the things in my life that I might consider to be treasures, I knew that I could still be content without them. I wasn’t an idolater. I loved God more than I loved anything else, but then I started to understand idolatry in a whole new light in our modern day world. Then the conviction began to take place.

Colossians 3:5 says, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Did you catch what this verse says is idolatry? Covetousness. Covetousness means to want what you do not have. Does this mean that if you are hungry and want a hamburger and you don’t have it in your home and you have to go to a restaurant to buy it, you are coveting? NO. What about if you want a hamburger for supper and your spouse who usually prepares all the meals serves chicken instead and you get angry with them for not having hamburgers, are you now coveting? Yes. What you want has caused you to sin.

So often we exhibit emotions that God would call sin and these emotions lead back to something that we want that we do not have. Our emotions that come out of us are a peephole into our thinking. We talked about the tie between our emotions and our thinking a few weeks ago. When the emotions of anger, bitterness, anxiety, worry, and woe is me, others would be better without me, perfectionism, control, etc. begin to show up in our lives, we must realize that there is thinking that is unbiblical and many times this unbiblical thinking has developed into an idol.

So when we start to exhibit emotions such as anger, worry or anxiety, bitterness, etc., we must examine our hearts and find out what it is that we want. I John 2:16 tells us “For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life – is not from the Father but is from the world.” So how could we put this verse into more concrete idols that we might have in our hearts that we have begun to hold dear to us? Here is a sample list.

    1. Security
    2. Affection/love
    3. Attention
    4. Satisfaction
    5. Comfort, refuge, ease of life
    6. Joy, happiness
    7. Approval

Have you ever wanted any of these things so much that you have sinned to try to get them? In America, we feel like we deserve life to be comfortable and easy. We are willing to sin in order to get that comfort and ease. How often do you feel inconvenienced when what you want your schedule to look like only to have it interrupted by a broken down car, or the kids interrupt our quiet time and we get angry at them for bothering us, or how much Covid has interrupted and inconvenienced our lives. So you may not be bowing down and worshipping your car, but you may be worshipping comfort and ease. Are you sinning in order to get what you want?

Take some time to think about what it is that you want. What emotions frequently exhibit themselves? How would others characterize you? Now what is it that you want that is causing those emotions? That is probably your idol.

Remember Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.”

Let’s celebrate Christmas this year truly worshipping the Lord who came to earth for us, rather than trying to worship the idols in our lives that never bring true peace, hope, or joy.

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18
Nov
2020

You’re just a water bottle waiting to be squeezed

Last week, we considered our emotions and looking at the cause of them. We determined we needed to ask ourselves a few questions to get at the bottom of what we are feeling.

“What am I thinking? What do I want?”

When emotions surfaced this week, did you consider them and ask yourself these questions? Once you did ask yourself those questions, did you figure out what you were thinking or wanting? Then did you evaluate those thoughts and desires as to whether they were God honoring or self-serving?

We have multiple situations that come into our life every day. Each of these circumstances squeezes us to see what is in our hearts. Just like when you squeeze a water bottle, what comes out? Water. So when the circumstances of life squeeze us, what comes from our hearts? Our emotions are a sure indicator of the person that we are. Our thoughts are an equally sure indicator of the person we are.

“As a man thinks in his heart so is he.”

(Proverbs 23:7)

 

Here’s the thing. We have a choice.

A circumstance happens. We have a thought, whether we realize that thought or not. Then we have an emotion. Then we respond.

Here’s my real life situation that happened this week. I hope you can relate.

I was cleaning our basement. I had the shop vac that I designated for just the basement to get all the bugs and cob webs and clean between the rafters. Then I had my upright vacuum to vacuum the rest of the space.  My husband came downstairs and said, “You have the shop vac down here, what do you need the upright down here for too?” Here’s what I thought, “why is he always doubting me, especially when it comes to cleaning?” My emotions were ones of frustration and even a bit of anger for his comment. So my words followed suit. “Why are you always doubting me?”  Rather than this response, I should have kindly and patiently explained to him what I was doing with both vacuums. Seems like a small and even petty thing, but I want you to understand this concept. I was focusing on me and allowing my selfishness to come out.

Multiple circumstances come into our lives every day. Every day, we are squeezed to see what is in our hearts. What comes out of our mouths or in our actions betrays our thoughts which are exhibited in our emotions.

 

“Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life.”

(Proverbs 4:23)

 

Every day, we must guard our hearts. When I think of a guard, I think of one who is dressed for battle and always on the alert for danger that may come. Do we dress ourselves every day for battle? We have been given battle gear as stated in Ephesians 6, but we must put it on. There is a requirement for us.

 

Our hearts and our thinking are so susceptible to our selfish desires. What I want does not always line up with what glorifies God. We may even be harmlessly in the basement serving our family by cleaning the basement of all the dead bugs and cob webs that seem to accumulate relentlessly down there, when all of a sudden a simple comment found me focused on me. I had spent that morning reading my Bible and praying. I had spent time riding my bike and quoting verses that I have been memorizing. All recipes for putting on my armor. Yet, there was a gap in my armor, and it showed up in my response.

 

I must relentlessly pursue Christ. I must always be looking to Christ and what He has done for me. I must be keeping my eyes always on the cross, not on myself.

 

I want to always be in the mindset of John the Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30).

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11
Nov
2020

Emotions

Have you ever wondered, “Now where did that feeling come from?” Why am I angry, depressed, anxious, frustrated, on the verge of tears, etc.? These and many other feelings are an indicator to us. We would be wise to take notice of them and consider what is causing these emotions. The best place to help us understand this is God’s Word. What does God’s Word say?

“As a man thinks in his heart so is he.”

(Proverbs 23:7)

 

When we have various emotions, it is important to ask ourselves a few questions.

 

“What are you thinking?”

 

“What are you wanting?”

 

Our emotions do not come from a vacuum. They do not come from nowhere. They come from our thinking. We may be experiencing emotions and not even realize what is causing these emotions. They came from our thinking.

 

What happens according to Proverbs 23:7 is we begin to think a certain way and we develop habits of reacting. We look at situations and think:

 

This isn’t fair.

Why did this happen to me?

I deserve better than this.

I can’t handle this.

Where is God in all of this?

This did not happen how I wanted it to happen.

 

As we think these things, we begin to respond with emotions such as anger, depression, anxiety, fear, frustration, annoyance, etc.

 

Every circumstance in life that happens to us never takes God by surprise. When we fail to trust Him, we begin to think the above thoughts, and then the emotions follow.

 

Here is the struggle we have, we have these feelings and too often we begin to act on them. We all have heard the phrases, “if it feels good, do it.” Or “do whatever makes you happy.”

 

What happens when what makes us feel good ends up feeling bad. What happens when what made you happy yesterday, makes you unhappy today. Do you see the challenge with following our emotions? They are always changing. Our emotions oftentimes are not speaking truth to us.

 

So what do we do? God has given us emotions for a reason. What is the purpose of them? Part of the purpose is to give us a key to our thoughts.

 

So what are your emotions telling you about your thoughts?

 

Do our thoughts line up with Scripture? I would say about myself that so often my thoughts do not line up with Scripture. It is something I need to work on daily, even minute by minute.

 

Many times we follow our emotions thinking that the actions that are produced by our emotions will produce the results that we are desiring. We want something, our emotions follow suit and then we act in whatever way necessary to get what we want. This then develops a pattern.

 

Here’s an example. We are driving down a 2 lane road and we come upon a sweet elderly couple taking a Sunday afternoon drive on Monday morning. You are already running late to that appointment that you need to get to. There are so many cars coming the other way, you can’t pass the sweet elderly couple. What emotions begin to be felt? Anger, fear, frustration, anxiety, etc.  How are you thinking? Won’t this couple drive faster? I need to get to my appointment or I am going to lose this opportunity. If I lose this opportunity, I won’t be able to pay my bills. So then what actions begin to follow? You might start honking. You start looking at your phone while you drive trying to find a different way- which could cause an accident.

 

This is an easy scenario to pick on this poor person, but it happens in our everyday lives. We want something and when we don’t get what we think we should get, we begin to experience emotions and so often these emotions produce sinful behavior.

 

So what is the solution?

 

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

 

This renewal of our minds needs to be a daily and sometimes even a minute by minute thing. As we are tested, we will then see what is really in our hearts. We will see what we are really thinking.

So when a situation comes into your life and you react, ask yourself “what am I thinking, what am I wanting?” This will help you to understand why you are experiencing the emotions you are having.

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