God’s revelation to us is so gracious and unbelievable.
It is so easy, as a follower of Christ, to be glad that you don’t sin “in big ways.” You know the song and dance we sing to ourselves, like the Pharisee praying at the temple, “Oh Lord, I’m so glad I don’t struggle with drugs or crime or those really bad things like others do….”
Yet God is patient with us, lovingly shaping us more into the image of His Son.
I realized this week how much I am addicted to the drug of my joy, my happiness, my intoxicating emotions. I realized that when I feel dry, unloved, and unappreciated by others I begin to feel unmotivated, depressed, discouraged, and more. The problem with this is that I begin to let my “feelings” lord over me – that is, be my idol – rather than let the Truth of God rule.
You see, God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
He is infinitely good.
He is infinitely faithful.
He is infinitely loving.
He is infinitely merciful.
He is infinitely just.
He is infinitely kind.
He is infinitely holy.
The list goes on. God is complete with an amazing character and nature that never changes. But I will let circumstances and feelings change who I am, how I act, what I do, and what I believe – even what I believe about God. I might even let myself feel unappreciated or unloved by God.
Like Habakkuk I begin to rail against God, wondering why He’s left me alone.
I’m so thankful He is patient and slow to anger, abounding in love. It’s in those dark moments, where my spirit is poorly, that He lovingly picks me up and begins to massage the Truth of His amazing love back into me.
I hope that during those times you feel discouraged and weak, you will turn fully to the Lord and say with the Apostle Paul, “when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Francois Fenelon, a famous 17th Century theologian, spoke of what it is to have an “Undue Attachment to Feelings” in this way:
Yet the Apostle shows us a more excellent way, for which he inspires us to a holy ambition: it is the way of love which seeks not its own. It is less in search of pleasure than of God, whose will it longs to fulfill.
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We must not be always children, always demanding heavenly consolations. . . . [T]o demand to be in a state of constant enjoyment takes away the feeling of the cross, and to live in a fervor of devotion that continually keeps paradise open – this is not dying upon the cross and becoming nothing.
Lord, help me to be wholly satisfied in You alone.