I have been a person drawn and moved by emotions. “If I do not feel, I cannot know” was my way of thinking and living — and the feelings had to be positive. This birthed a lot of frustration in me, especially in my relationship with God; and has caused me to develop an affinity to negative feelings and emotions.
As I was doing my devotion one day in June, one of the prompts asked how can I show God’s love today, referencing Mark 12:30. Immediately my mind went to 1 Corinthians 13 which defines love for us and 1 John which describes what love has the power to do. But 1 Corinthians 13 stuck with me and as I read verses 4-8 I considered which of these could I embrace and act on to show God’s love. Verse 6 tells us that love rejoices in truth and that stuck out to me as I’m learning to embrace the gravity and depth of God’s Word being true and the Truth.
I decided, ‘today I can show God’s love by rejoicing in truth.’ Why is this so important? See, like many, I have been silently dealing with a mental battle. It’s like my mind had been a magnet to negativity and sadness and I just could not understand why. But as I considered the magnetic effect, I realized that this can be true in the opposite. Instead of looking to attach myself to things that make me upset or saddens me, I can grow an affinity to and become like a magnet to that which is good and positive. I can look for those things that’ll cause me to be glad!
So today, as I prayed at the altar in my room, facing the wall of scripture, I started to read aloud the truth and become glad over it!
This analogy came to me: when someone says they have a gift for us we get excited because we are expectant and we trust that person and believe what they tell us; so if they were to say “come, follow me, it’s over here” we would go and it would be easy because the excitement, gladness, trust, belief, and expectation. That’s how we ought to be with the truth which is the word of God. That’s a way we love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. That depth of love is produced when we rejoice over truth and this produces a reality in us that causes us to follow Him with ease — loving others, being fruitful and multiplying according to the instructions He has given us. We become fortified and immovable. God is good!
Feelings are fickle so relying on them solely is pointless. Because what is true is true with or without a feeling attached to it, rejoicing in the truth helps us to KNOW beyond feeling. Practice attaching uplifting feelings such as joy, excitement, and gladness to the Truth so that when you can’t feel, you still KNOW.
With love,
Temika