Mastering Emotions

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not” (Isaiah 53:3).

There is a lot out there that can bring sorrow to your heart and life. Sorrow can numb you and cause you to shut down from God and others. We can routinely go through the pain and yet become hardened at the same time. Not realizing that we can limit the Holy One of God in our daily lives, we live withdrawn and tired. We dream about places we love, we long for something to fill, and for people to understand, and we become forlorn and miserable on the inside and it shows.

Some people are lonely and it’s their own fault. They can live so self-centeredly and become so wrapped up in their own little lives and live as if the world should revolve around them. When we are wrapped about our lives we become a small, tight package that is about us and others are not in the picture except for our criticism.

The lonely wants friends but usually only has a few, if any. The selfish and lonely person can make a demigod out of himself and not even realize it. He desires a circle of admirers who will compliment and admire him but usually finds he is not surrounded by any. How sad and how lonely we become when it is about us and really no one else. We judge others by our hurt (imagined or real), and we aren’t aware of the real problem.

There is no life so empty as the self-centered life. There is no life so centered as the self-emptied life. The Lord Jesus made Himself of no reputation. He was despised, rejected, and ridiculed. The only reason we can love others is that first God loved us. When we realize His grace for us and we accept His acceptance of us then we are free to love others and then fellowship happens freely. The life of the believer is free to love unconditionally. What freedom!

Why do we try to impress others with our gifts that God has given to each of His born-again children? Why do we work so hard for a little slap on the back by someone who notices? Why are we so dissatisfied with life and with others? Could it be that we are not dependent upon the grace of God?

Our Savior was faced with misunderstandings, false accusations of His character, insults on His person, chicanery against Him, threats, trumped up charges, torture, abuse, and finally a horrendous death and yet in His loneliness He never became selfish. No one has ever been as lonely as the Lord Jesus. He was cut off from Heaven and earth and yet He still was not selfish. He continued to reach out to the thief upon the cross and to those who heard Him as He suffered. And He is reaching out to you and me today.

You and I need someone to love, someone who understands, and the need to be needed and wanted. Jesus is the One who fulfills these three needs. You say, “I need someone who is real.” That’s part of our problem. He is real. He lives in you, He walks with you, He goes with you, He is our living hope!

You may have seasons of loneliness, but that feeling does not have to master you. Because Jesus is with you, you never need to be really lonely. Recognize your problem and go to Jesus and confess your need of Him so you can love others in Jesus.

Father in Heaven I pray for each of us. We allow too much to knock us around and to keep us down. Forgive us for knowing the stories of the Bible and even teaching them to others while we ourselves forget that You love us, need us, and understands each of us. Forgive us for not allowing You to capture us so that we may capture others in this same out-flowing of Your love through us. Oh what love you give. Can’t wait for Your name to be glorified so that we may see revival. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Similar Posts

  • Thankfully Yours

    “And the third day there was a marriage in Cana, of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there” (John 2:1).

    In the book of Exodus chapter seven you will find a story of judgment fallen against the nation of Egypt. There God caused all the waters to be turned into blood. It did not  matter if there was left-over water in a cup for it was turned into blood. Recognize that God owns the waters and the molecules that make up everything visible and invisible and He holds it all together.

    We do not know the couple’s name who was married but we do know that Jesus, God’s Son, turned the water into wine. Recognize this fact: When the resources of the world runs out and dries up God is there to show you His joy. He wants us to recognize Him. He is the giver of life and all good gifts.

    Our God would rather bless than judge. Invite Him to the wedding of life. God weds you and me to His life so that we may be thankful for His good gifts. If we forget and turn away from Him we invite His judgment and our souls become worried and fretful. The world doesn’t like it nor do they understand when we find Jesus to be our source of joy.

    Father help us to realize that You own all things and everything. May we fall down upon our faces with gratitude and thank You. Ingratitude is when we forget the gifts You give.  You give the water and all good things. Thank You for giving us the miracle of gratitude whereby we may thank You. Amen

  • The Up-and-Outer

    “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).

    Confession means to simply admit unfaithfulness to God through your sinful thoughts and actions; to totally agree with God’s point of view regarding your thoughts and actions as inexcusable; to humbly accept any consequences brought about by those thoughts and actions; to diligently act in renewed faithfulness toward your gracious, forgiving God.

    The Son of Man majors in sinners.  He doesn’t major in sin — He majors in sinners.  But then, everybody’s a sinner, right?  Then what kind of sinner does He focus on?

    Hungry ones.  Desperate ones.  And still today, Jesus gives His attention to sinners who desperately need Him to address their sin because of who they know He is.

    Could it be that many of us are just too righteous for Jesus?  You know…we’re too “okay” for Jesus.  We’re part of the crowd.  We have not broken loose to go climb the sycamore tree as Zacchaeus did.  We just haven’t realized, as of yet, that unless we’re galvanized into Jesus’ mission, we’ll miss Jesus.

    How hungry are you?  How bad do you want Him?  That’s what God wants to know from us.  Are you up in a tree looking for God?  Are you out of fellowship with God?  Then look no further for God is passing by and He is passing for you and me.

  • Course Directions

    “And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise; and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do” (Judges 7:17).

    God is looking to those to whom He can trust His life to.  Gideon was one of those men who knew he was weak but he found God to be strong.  So in this belief and faith in God, Gideon commands the three hundred men by his side to do as he does because the end result will be victory.

    What was Gideon asking the men to do?  He was asking them to hoist the sails of their faith and wait for the wind of God to blow.  Everyone who is born of the Spirit tests his life by the Word of God, and by doing so, he is setting his sails to catch the breath of God.  We place our hands on the rudder, but we are totally dependent on God’s wind to blow.

    Gideon blew the trumpet, broke the clay vessel wherein was the candle, and the light inside began to glow outwardly.  When you and I are ready for God to work we will blow the trumpet of proclamation of life in Christ, and those around us will see the light of illumination in us because of our broken consecration before God.

    Are you ready to take steps to discipline your inner man?  If you are, what course corrections need to be made in your life even today?

  • He’s Coming

    “…for I have provided me a king among his sons”  (I Samuel 16:1c).

    These are days of immense significance to the Christian Church.  Any of us with discernment cannot but believe the truth of the Word of God, that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back soon to take His people home and thereafter establish His kingdom.  Yet how few of us relate our lives to this significant truth!

    The church machinery is working overtime at a very severe strain trying to keep things going.  There is a great denominational cry for production.  Yet there is very little heavenly reality attached to the product.  The lasting quality of the goods is subnormal, and even borders on abnormal.

    The Lord is still looking, as He did in David’s time, for a man after His own heart.  This ought to be the cry in prayer for the Lord’s work and Word to find such a man.  In these times, before the coming of the Lord, we should be bound to pray for a life that can stand the fiery trials and that can stand against the times.  It is through a Spirit-filled man that is the fastest way to evangelism.

    Remember that the Lord is coming.  He said that the last days would be days of great trial and savagery.  The flesh is more prominent today than ever and yet we are told that “greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.”  Don’t stand down.  That’s cowardice!  Don’t stand aside.  That’s compromise!  Don’t stand against.  That’s contention!  Stand Up!  That’s conviction and courage!

  • Wrestling in Prayer

    “A man wrestled with him till daybreak” (Genesis 32:24).

    Who is doing the praying? Is it our determined hearts, or the Holy Spirit? If prayer originates with the Holy Spirit, then the wrestling can be beautiful and wonderful. But if we are the victims of our own overheated wants and desires, our praying can be as carnal as any other Christian act.

    God’s way is the best way. Our way is fraught with selfish intentions. We need to ask God to give us pure motives whenever we pray to Him. Jacob’s wrestling with God was carnal until he gave in to God’s will. After he was beaten upon, he cried, “I will not let you go unless you bless me!” Only the Spirit can pray effectively. Let us depend upon Him.

     

     

     

  • We Close the Door

    “In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them” (2 Chronicles 29:3).

    King Hezekiah began to reign at the age of twenty-five years of age as King of Judah. His predecessors failed to follow the Lord. The condition at the temple was so much like many churches today–closed. Closed doors speak of no access to God and no service for God. While God has set before us an open door (Rev. 3:8), yet we close it by the way we live.

    How do we close the doors of the church? We don’t witness. We don’t pray. The altar of prayer is cold. We don’t sacrifice. We think more of our lives then following the life God intends for each of us. When God looks around He sees plenty of rubbish in the church. No wonder the church of the Living God is so powerless.

    What must be done? There must be a way given–for God wants to prosper His work. God’s heart is to get us to the point of total sanctification-set apart for God. Sacrifice of one’s person to the Lord’s service and a song in the heart leads to the reopening of the doors. God must start with you and me-the preacher and the people. For if God’s servants are not clean, God cannot bless His work.