Keeping Our Cool in the Heat of Emotion

Feeling frustrated lately? I can relate.

Heading out to meet a friend for lunch, I get into the car, turn the key, and nothing. Not even a click. While contemplating my next move, a cranking noise from the CD player about startled my hair gray.

Why is it my CD player refuses to play CD’s, yet comes alive when the battery goes dead?

l have to admit, at times my emotions can be as cranky as my CD player.  I’d like to think I’m ready for unexpected calamities, ready to react all super-spiritual-Christian-like. Then reality hits. I’m human and I can’t control my reactions on my own. I’d better be prayed-up, cause as soon as I think I’ve got it altogether, I’m in trouble.

So how do we react when the unexpected happens? How do we react when someone stomps on our feelings, or worse yet, hurts a family member or friend?

We’d like to believe our sinful behavior is as dead as my battery was; then anger, pride, and a defensive attitude drags us three steps backwards.

So let’s not be all super-spiritual, when what we really need is the supernatural. The Holy Spirit. He teaches us what we ought to say. He is our Helper. We sure do need help, don’t we?

He not only teaches us what to say, He helps us control the things we shouldn’t say. God knew we needed Him, and God supplies all we need. Even a supernatural muzzle.

We’re in this together, so next time Satan lays a snare, let’s try this:

• Pray without ceasing. Call on the Name of the Lord, He hears us. Longer prayers in our prayer closet, and shorter ones throughout our day. We can talk to God anytime, anywhere, and better yet, all the time and everywhere.
• Remember God is for us, not against us. That dead battery may be for a good reason. Why? We may never know, but that’s not important. The key is trust.  Let’s trust God and His plan.
• When hurtful words are hurled in our direction, walk away and walk it off.
• If we’re not able to walk away,  let’s practice the fruit of the Spirit called self-control, our supernatural muzzle. Deflecting hurtful words by using hurtful words? That’s sin. Let’s not go there.
• We may say we welcome feedback, but what about when it’s constructive?            Instead of allowing our defensive Star-Trek force field  to rise up around us, assess the words. Do they have merit? If not, keep praising God and allowing truth to defend us. God loves justice. He is our defender. Surrender to the Defender.
• If we believe we are never wrong, something is wrong. We need to take responsibility for our part. Is our first reaction to shift blame? Be honest. This is not including abusive behavior towards us. That is never acceptable.

When those unexpected emotions jump out like guests at a surprise party, tell them the party’s over.

What has thrown you into a tizzy lately?

Here are a few verses to encourage you:

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.                                                                                                                   Romans 6:11 NASB

Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult.                                                                                                                                 Proverbs 12:16 NIV

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.                                                                                                            Romans 6:14 NASB

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,                          He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that                       I said to you.                                                                                 John 14:26 NKJV

How do these verses speak to you?

If you don’t know Jesus personally, please take time to read the “Meet Jesus” page. He is standing at the door of your heart, gently knocking. Open the door and experience new life.

Love in Jesus, He is The Way

Doris                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

New American Standard Bible (NASB)                                                                                       Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman  Foundation

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®  All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.

Worry-Free, Are You Ready?

“I don’t care anymore, do what you want. I’m done worrying about it. I’m done.”

She clicked the disconnect button on the cell, missing those old phones you could slam down hard on the cradle. Somehow a finger tap wasn’t enough. Raw emotions rang the bell atop her internal ‘test your strength’ limit.

It wasn’t true you know. She still cared, but she was spent. The worry sucked the breath from her lungs like a vice grip. Maybe if she stopped caring, she could let go of the worry.

Sound familiar? I think we’ve all been there.

But caring isn’t an emotion we can easily switch off, and why would we want to?

How can we still care, yet ditch the choke-hold of worry?

There is a way.

Pray away the worry-gray.

Praise Him in the light of day, and dark of night where He brings light.

It doesn’t mean we stop caring, it means we start surrendering.

Surrender to the One who takes care of our cares. tweet that

He cares for me and He cares for you.

And worry-free we can be. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.

Are you ready?

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

                                                 1 Peter 5:6-7 (NKJV)

What Makes Us Angry?

“Be angry, and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your wrath,” Ephesians 4:26

Are things that tend to make us angry all about us? People cutting in front of us in line, the conspiracy train schedule making us late, grocery store out of the one item you went there for…

Let’s not waste anger on trivial things our spoiled selves take for granted. Let’s not allow anger to cause us to sin. Let’s use our anger to take action.

A friend told me yesterday a popular Mall is a hot-spot for human trafficking. Girls go missing; taken; sold. Have I walked right by, not even aware?

Three out of ten women in the US will voluntarily end a pregnancy before their 45th birthday.  A well-known organization supporting pro-choice has a video on their website. Everyone smiling, the young girl in the waiting room is called. As she walks to the back, her mother grabs a magazine. The patient asks, “what happens during the procedure?” The soft-spoken woman replies, “we empty your uterus…and it only takes 5 minute. Why do you think the ultra-sound screen is turned out of view, or perhaps not even performed at all? Heartbeat = a child in the womb, not a blob of tissue.

I’ve met some of them; women suffering in silence because they were told it was an acceptable choice. Actually, most felt they had no choice, which is so ironic. A choice isn’t a choice if one feels it’s the only choice. Many have turned pain, grief, and anger of misinformation into action, establishing and serving at pregnancy centers and becoming advocates for life; advocates for truth. Forgiven and set free, they are making a difference. Women need to know.

Terrorists, greed, be-headings of children. The starving, the homeless, the neglected. We spend millions of dollars on what makes us feel good. Do we even give, not  because we’re generous, but because it makes us feel good?

Let’s be cheerful do-good givers, not charitable feel-good takers. Let’s be devoted   prayers, not naysayers.

What can one person do? What can we do together?

Christine Caine, co-founder of the A21 Campaign against human trafficking, made this statement in her book Undaunted:

“Remember, we can’t do everything, but we can all do something. Every challenge we seek to overcome will have its own dangers and difficulties. If it did not, it would not be a challenge. Toppling an unjust political system, fighting human trafficking, helping the hungry in your community, reaching lost people with the love of God, visiting those who are in prison (justly or unjustly), providing education for migrant children, bringing fresh water to the thirsty, helping a neighbor in a time of crisis, and thousands of other acts of service all come with their own unique challenges. If you and I are going to make a difference for Jesus in this world, the question is not ‘Will we face challenges?’ The real question is, ‘Will we be ready to face dangers, difficulties, and disappointments and learn to press on with an undaunted spirit?”

So next time we get angry because we broke a nail, or we can’t find the remote, let’s refocus.

Anger in and of itself is not sin, yet it can cause us to sin. Instead of losing it and lashing out, let’s redirect and reach out.

Pray for direction; seek to make a difference in the Name of Jesus. Turn anger into action, and selfishness into service. Family, community, country, world.

It’s hard to grasp the hard truth, in some countries you’d have to knock on thirty-thousand doors before finding someone who has heard the gospel.  Thirty-thousand doors.

We can’t do everything, but we can do something. 

There are opportunities to give and serve in pregnancy centers, food pantries, on mission trips, in shelters, with hot meal programs…

Let’s share our gifts, walk in our calling and spread the joy. It’s time to bloom.

Have you turned anger into action in some way?

Share what God has placed on your heart to do. Do you feel drawn to a cause or mission?

In Him,

Doris