Emotions

​Watching people could easily become a favorite hobby for me. Do you ever notice the faces of oncoming drivers while sitting at a traffic light?  Try it sometime.  There is a lot to be learned about life in the expressions of those we encounter each day.

A friend of mine concluded that if one were to attend a multilevel marketing meeting where Jesus’ name was substituted for the product being hyped, people would swear they were at a revival.  His thought pushes my “what if” button.  What if:

• Church were more celebratory—would people conclude that cheering for Christ was far more meaningful than sitting on some concrete seat bellowing for the latest sports hero?
• We Christians truly took the time to weep with those in mourning?  Would anyone have time to give their emotional attention to reality shows?
• We dared to laugh in the face of adversity because we had the courage to share with others that we read the whole book and we win in the end.
• We quit criticizing those who lift up their hands, those who sit on their hands, those who dance to a different beat or those who can’t dance to save their lives and just let our hearts rejoice in Jesus.
• We freely confessed our sin, fell on our knees before our Holy God and wept at the sorry state of our nation’s moral condition.  
• We were more concerned about God being glorified than what others might think of us.

​We are created in God’s image!  Let’s identify and express the emotions He’s given us.  Let’s open up our hearts so the world can see—Jesus! 
 
Meditation
Ecclesiastes 3:1,4--There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: . . . a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance;
Psalm 126:1,2--When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.  Our mouths were filled with laughter then, and our tongues with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”
 
Inspiration
God holds the saints responsible for emotions they have not got and ought to have as well as for the emotions they have allowed which they ought not to have allowed . . . If we have no emotional lives, then we have disobeyed God.  “Be filled with the Spirit”; it is as impossible to be filled with the Spirit and be free from emotion as it is for one to be filled with wine and not show it . . . Jesus demands the whole nature, and He demands that part of human nature the devil uses most, that is, the emotional part.  Oswald Chambers in Biblical Ethics
 
©1998 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)