I was puzzled.
During the months of training, Jane had faithfully attended classes, completing
her courses with passing grades. Yet as I began to compare her spiritual growth
and maturity with others in the class, I realized something was missing.
What could it be
that had so retarded her spiritual growth? Could there be something in her
past—a need for healing perhaps? Or a person to whom she needed to extend
forgiveness?
"Lord,"
I prayed, "show me the clue to praying for and counseling her."
Over a period of
time the clue I had been searching for began to be revealed. Jane was not in
control of her emotions!
I began to see
that she was seeking one emotional "high" after another by attending
various meetings and other spiritual events. It was affecting her, as any
addiction would.
She made
statements about how tired she was and talked about problems at work, problems
at home and with her children. In her "sphere of influence" both the
saved and the unsaved were seeing inconsistencies in her walk with God.
Enthusiasm was present, yes, but friends began to avoid her because of the
drastic changes they had seen in her life.
Jane noticed the
exodus of friends and family, but her reasoning was that they were not as
"spiritually minded" as she. Her friends, on the other hand, were
saying, "Jane is so heavenly minded that she is no earthly good. She's
spacey!"
Still, the need
for the "emotional fix" continued—one more meeting, one more prayer
group, one more conference. Jane became a person who made all her life's
decisions, spiritually and otherwise, based entirely on how it
"felt." If it felt good, it had to be God!
Who's in Control?
God created us
with emotions that have a powerful effect on our lives. We cannot, however,
allow these emotions to control us.
When we are
controlled by our emotions—by how we feel—we are settling for so much less than
what God has planned for us. We begin to judge the value of things by the
nature of our response to them. The world says, "If it feels good, do
it." But that is not God's way.
One of the
greatest problems with being led by our emotions and judging our daily walk
based on how we feel is that feelings cannot be trusted! They will deceive us.
People who deliberately walk into situations applying the "How does it
feel?" method rather than God's truth often suffer dire consequences!
This is
especially true in making decisions about important life issues such as
choosing a mate, changing jobs or spending money. But it is also true in
deciding how much time we spend with God. If we spend time with Him only on the
days that we feel like it, we will have inconsistent lives. If we apply the
Word of God only when it agrees with our feelings, we will not be walking in
the wholeness God intends for us.
Our
personalities are uniquely different. Some of us, as my friend Babe says,
"cry even when the mail comes or when the flag goes by." She feels
her ministry is "crying."
However,
personality type cannot be used as an excuse for being ruled and governed by
our emotions. Yes, many of us are more emotional and seem to have stronger
feelings than others. But the Word of God says we are to be "led by the
Spirit," not by our emotions.
"For those
who are according to the flesh and controlled by its unholy desires set their
minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are
according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set
their minds on and seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit.
Now the
mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death
[death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and
hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both
now and forever].
"So then
those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and
impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable
to Him.
"But you
are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if
the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you].
But if anyone does not possess the [Holy] Spirit of Christ, he is none of His
[he does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God]" (Rom. 8:5-6,
8-9, AMP).
How we are led
will make a difference in our level of spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity
requires that in every area of our lives, including our emotions, we be led by
the Spirit of God. We cannot be effective in showing forth the light and life
of Christianity if we are controlled by how we are feeling on a particular day
at a particular time.
God forbid that
we should ever be known as one of those "silly" women described in
the
