“So rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him! Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure.” Psalm 32:11
As a woman who is madly in love with Jesus, I have often found myself expressing that love based on my emotions. Anyone else ever do that? It is so crazy to me that I know full well that Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection has set me free and I can live freely and confidently in victory, forgiveness, and love. But instead of living in what I know I often live opposite. I live as though I am living in death, condemnation, and joylessness.
Why is that? Why are we often, as children of God, so unhappy when we should be the happiest?
Because we live off of our emotions instead of the truth! I mean if we really get honest with ourselves our unhappiness comes from allowing our emotions to control us, and thus placing us in bondage.
Why is Joel Osteen so famous-he speaks to the emotions of people, why are we more drawn to people and personal stories, because it speaks to our emotions? Why do we do a lot of the things we do, because it pleases our emotions.
The question is this? Do our emotions give us victory over death or did Christ? Did Jesus live off His emotions or off the truth? We all know if He lived off of His emotions He would have never been beat, mocked, made fun of, or crucified. He also would have never ascended to heaven and claimed victory over death for us.
If you and I want to reflect Christ we have to start by living in the truth, if you and I want others to want what we have then we too need to want what we claim to have. And finally we have to stop living as though we are joyless and start living in the joy of Jesus Christ.
We need to laugh more, trust more, and relish in His promises more.
Jesus You have set us free from bondage, help us live in that freedom with joy. Amen
