Question Your Emotions Not God’s Unfailing Love

Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God! Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you—even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mizar. I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. But each day the LORD pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life. Psalm 42:5-8

We question a lot sometimes. Have you ever questioned your emotions? In Psalm 42, the Psalmist does just that. In fact, in other Psalms, the idea is repeated. Reading through this Psalm a while back, I was confronted with this idea. Do I question my emotions?

I found myself convicted that I question God a lot, I question my wife a lot, I question authority over me a lot, but what does God want me to question? How about the emotions that are ripping my faith away? How about questioning why I feel in despair even though I know that God is faithful? This is the point the Psalmist makes in Psalm 42.

So often, our despair and discouragement are tied up in the turmoil of our human emotions. Emotions that seem sometimes uncontrollable and immovable, yet when it comes down to it, they’re just emotions. Don’t get me wrong; we have reasons to feel the way we do. And it’s at that moment that I think the Lord is telling us to question them in light of His faithfulness. In light of His Unfailing Love! It puts it in a different perspective, doesn’t it?

How many times in Scripture are we reminded that God is faithful and to be ruled by emotions can only lead to ruin? Rather we need to rule our emotions by reasoning and questioning and coming back to the truth of who God is, what He has done for us, and how amazingly He loves us.

Oh, I know it sounds simple and easy, yet our emotions do not understand logic, truth, and reasoning. So again, teach them, question them and lead your heart and emotions to a place of gratefulness and peace. Let God rule over them in truth. Allow God’s love to keep them in check.

Praying and trusting in God’s faithfulness with you,
Pastor Mike


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