Kneel Before You Feel by Mikayla Cooper
Kneel Before You Feel by Mikayla Cooper
Every personality test that I take tells me that I’m emotional. I’m a four on the Enneagram, ENFJ on the Myers-Briggs, an otter on the Gary Smalley Test, and a blue on the True Colors Test. According to these tests, I feel emotions very deeply and use them as a guideline for how I should act or react. I used to think, like many people, that my emotions are correct and so therefore, whatever action I take based on my emotions is also correct. But, here is a hard truth that God has revealed to me: Emotions and feelings are not the basis of reality, but instead, are internal reactions to perceived reality.
In the book of Judges, “there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) The book of Judges also documents one of the worst periods of Israel’s ancient history where the entire nation was running rampant with sin and corruption. Because everyone did what they felt was right, it led to a whole entire nation falling under the rule of selfishness. When we let emotions and feelings dictate our lives, then we succumb to sin and disobedience to God.
It is vital for us to understand that God is okay with you feeling emotions, but anything that is done must be done under His authority and what He says to be correct. David says in Psalm 4:4, “Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still.” We can feel emotions without acting in selfishness. In fact, we can take the extra step and behave in the opposite spirit.
David in the Bible was a man of many emotions. He felt great joy and great anguish. He has felt blazing anger and tender compassion. Yet he was a man that let his actions lead his emotions. In Psalm 13, David cries out to the Lord asking why God has forsaken him and abandoned Him. David feels like God has ignored him and has stopped caring. However, later in the same psalm, David remembers the character of God saying, “But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.” David’s emotion is sorrow, but his response is worship and gratitude. David understood that right feelings followed right action.
If we are to put this into practice in our own lives, we must understand one thing: The Lordship of Jesus Christ. The late Elisabeth Elliot says it like this: “Until the will and the affection are brought under the authority of Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone to accept, his lordship.” Do you know why Israel failed during their era of Judges? Because they had no king to submit to that could tell them what was correct and what was wrong. And nothing is different for us. If we do not submit to the lordship of Christ Jesus, then we are left like the Israelites to make up our own realities based on how we feel.
So, be obedient to Christ even if it is with tears in your eyes. Forgive those who have hurt you even if you are offended. Serve your peers in love even if your flesh wants you to hate them. Think of the beauty and wonders of God when you are tempted with worry and anxiety. And if you don't take my word for it, maybe you will listen to psychologist Noam Shpancer, Ph.D. “The shortest, most reliable way to change how you're feeling is to change what you're doing.”
CONVICTION
Feelings Follow Right Actions
PRACTICAL CHALLENGES
-If you find yourself feeling negative emotions about something or someone, make it a point to do an action in the opposite spirit. (i.e., if you get irritated about your roommate not doing his/her dishes, then do the dishes for him/her)
-Study the life of David in Scripture
-Study how he made decisions that honored God even when in distress
-Study the consequences he faced and the decisions he made when he did not submit his feelings to God