FEELINGS

We all have feelings, some stronger than others. Our feelings are driven by what we believe and think and say to ourselves. For example, if someone points a gun at you, it is likely that you would feel fear. What is the cause of that fear? The gun? The person holding the gun? Or you and what you think about the situation? Most people would probably experience at least some fear, but that is due to their knowledge and/or experience that guns can be harmful or deadly and the thought that they could easily be shot. But what if you believed the gun was just a toy and you believed the person holding it was just joking? Your feelings would probably be quite different.


I was held up at gunpoint when I was in college. I was walking down the sidewalk outside the university library at 3:30 in the afternoon when I passed a young man walking the other way. He spoke first, greeting me with a friendly "Hello" and I responded "Hi" without even looking up at him. The next thing I knew, he was pointing a gun right in my face and demanding my purse. It surprised me, taking me entirely off guard due to the time of day and location, but also because it was a chrome-plated gun. It had the same appearance as the toy guns we had played with as kids, so I immediately thought it was a joke, and that it was a toy gun! I said nothing, and never even saw his face as I stared at the gun, and he grabbed my purse as he turned and ran around the corner to his get-away car and accomplice. The next thing I felt was frustration and anger, thinking of the photos in my purse that only had meaning for me, and that he only got $3.00 cash. The only thing I said was "Oh, man!" as I picked up what else had fallen out of my hands when he yanked the purse off my arm. I went into the library to call the security office, and then it finally hit me, the adrenaline coursing through my blood, making every inch of my body shake with fear. So I experienced a wide range of emotions in a very short period of time, all because of what I was thinking at each of those different moments. The gunman didn't cause my fear, I did based on what I believed and thought and told myself!


We can choose how to feel about something by choosing what we believe about it, how we think about it, and what we tell ourselves about it. This applies to all our emotions, such as anger, anxiety, fear, sadness, shame, guilt, etc. Our immediate response may be difficult to control, but how it continues to affect us afterward is our choice. It is not necessarily easy to change negative feelings into positive ones, but we have help:


"I can do all things through him who gives me strength." Phil. 4:13


"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." I Peter 5:7


"Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed, Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41b-42a


So, what is that "one thing" that is needed? It is faith in God that He will care for all our needs, that He has our future handled, that our life is in his loving hands. This is our basic belief on which we can focus our thoughts and internal talk. We can pray that God would help us to change those feelings that are causing us difficulty and strengthen our faith in him. Then we can move forward with confidence in the Lord!


Written by Jan Andersen