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Don't Hide Your Feelings Today's Scripture "Laughter can conceal a heavy heart, but when laughter ends, the grief remains. " Proverbs 14:13 NLT
Thoughts for Today
Most of us have some degree of trouble admitting our true feelings and being able to express them, especially if we are struggling with life-controlling problems. But throughout the Bible, God encourages us to know our feelings and not keep them hidden inside. Jesus set an example for us: He had emotions and he expressed them. He cried. He got angry. He was sad. We often hide the way we feel behind a defense to keep our real self from showing through. Inside we may feel fearful or angry or sad, but we hide those feelings by joking ... or acting superior ... or being silent ... or employing some other defense. We may try to cover our sadness with laughter, but when the laughter ends, the grief remains. Hiding our feelings can give them control over our lives. Unexpressed anger or fear or guilt can have a destructive influence on everything we do. Hidden shame and sadness are roadblocks to hope and healing. Consider this... If you have been hiding your true feelings, has your "cover-up" helped? Or have you learned first-hand that when the laughter ends, the grief remains? Admitting your feelings can be a turning point. Be honest with yourself. And with God. And then with a friend. Being real will open the door for healing. Prayer Lord, I've been hiding my feelings for a long time, but I know now it's time to be honest. Help me to be real. Help me to share my real feelings with my loved ones. Set me free. In Jesus' name ...
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Monday November 23
This week's promise: God blesses those who seek after him Born of the Spirit "Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit." John 3:8 NLT Who died on November 22, 1963? Many will correctly answer, "President John F. Kennedy." But also on that day another person died who was mightier in God's kingdom. His name was C. S. Lewis.
His initials stood for Clive Staples, but to his friends he was known as "Jack." Born near Belfast, Ireland, in 1898, he was raised as an Anglican. But at the age of ten his world was shaken when his mother died of cancer. Jack wanted nothing to do with a God so cruel as to take his mother. By his early teenage years he had become an atheist.
Jack's spiritual pilgrimage back to God began in 1926 with a conversation with a cynical friend whose belief in the Trinity challenged Lewis' atheistic presuppositions.
Through the influence of various philosophers he read and conversations with his intellectual colleagues, including J. R. R. Tolkien, he began to realize that an absolute Spirit or God existed and that the events of the Bible had really happened.
By 1931, he had passed from merely believing in God to trusting in him as his Savior.
In 1941, Lewis burst on the literary scene with The Screwtape Letters. Books then began to flow from his pen at an amazing rate.
C. S. Lewis is considered the most influential Christian author of the twentieth century — quite a leap from the atheism of his youth.
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| 16) And he asked them, " What are you discussing with them?" 17) And one of the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; 18) and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able." 19) And he answered them, " O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me." 20) And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21) And Jesus asked his father, " How long has he had this?" And he said, "From childhood. 22) And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us." 23) And Jesus said to him, " If you can! All things are possible to him who believes." 24) Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" 25) And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, " You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again." 26) And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, "He is dead." 27) But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28) And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" 29) And he said to them, " This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." 30) They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; 31) for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, " The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise." 32) But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him.
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When Logic Fails
by Charles R. Swindoll Hebrews 6:20 Human logic breaks down in crisis. The mystery is enormous, and it is the enormity of it all that calls for faith. I'm sorry if that sounds like an overused bromide. But if we could unravel it, why would we need faith? If that were true, all we'd really need is the answer in the back of the book and someone to point it out to us; we'd read it, and that's all there would be to it. But God's plan is that we walk by faith, not by sight. It is faith and patience that stretch us to the breaking point. Such things send doubt running. When you find yourself dealing with doubt, let me give you three things to remember. First, God cannot lie. He can test, and He will. He can say no, and He sometimes will; He can say yes, and He will; He can say wait, and occasionally He will---but God cannot lie. He must keep His word. Doubt says, "You fool, you're stupid to believe in a God who puts you through this." By faith, keep remembering that God cannot lie. Here's the second piece of advice that helps me: We will not lose. Doubt says, "You lose if you trust God through this. You lose." If I read anything in this whole section of Hebrews 6, I read that in the mysterious manner of God's own timing, for some unexplainable and yet unchangeable purpose, those of us who trust Him ultimately win---because God ultimately wins. There's a little chorus Christians love to sing. It is quiet and tender, yet tough and true: In His time, in His time,
He makes all things beautiful
In His time.
Lord, please show me every day,
As You're teaching me Your way,
That You do just what You say,
In Your time.¹
God cannot lie. We will not lose. Your mate has walked away from you, an unfair departure---you will not lose, child of God. Your baby has been born and for some reason, it has been chosen to be one of those special persons on this earth. You will not lose. You've waited and waited, and you were convinced things would improve, yet things have only gotten worse---keep remembering, you will not lose. God swears on it with an oath that cannot change. You will not lose. Third---and I guess it's the best of all---is that our Lord Jesus does not leave. To quote a verse from Scripture, He "sticks closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24). "Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever . . ." Hebrews 6:20. That means He is there at any time . . . and always. God cannot lie. He will always keep His Word.
You cannot lose. God is trustworthy.
Our Lord Jesus does not leave. He is with you even now.
In His Time," Maranatha Music
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Sunday November 22
This week's promise: God is always calling us back to him
Hearing God
"My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me." John 10:27 NLT He knows our name, our nature Usually, when someone says, "God has been speaking to me lately," we get a little suspicious (justly so, in many cases). Many who say God speaks to them are far too often what I describe as a few clowns short of a circus.
Yet as our Good Shepherd, Jesus promises that we can hear and know His voice. This does not, however, need to be some mysterious, mystical process. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that God speaks to you quite often.
You see, the Good Shepherd knows not only your name (John 10:3), but your nature.
Yes, God speaks—but we do not always like what He says. Have you sensed the conviction of the Holy Spirit when you were in a relationship or a place you did not belong? At times, God's Holy Spirit whispers in the stillness of your heart, "What are you doing here?" How else can we know when God is speaking to us?
God speaks to us through His word. (Psalm 119:105)
God speaks to us through circumstances (Psalm 119:67)
God speaks to through His peace (Colossians 3:15)
And once we have heard God's voice, what should we do? We must follow. Jesus calls, we responds. He whispers, we move. We follow—and then we keep on listening.
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