This week we will discuss the artist and emotions. We are made to be emotional beings. However, we are not to be haunted by the "dark side" of our emotions but free to live emotionally healthy, instead of unstable, slaves to untrustworthy feelings.
Jesus said "Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted". King David, who was also a poet and songwriter, was an emotional guy. Would David feel at home in your church today or would he see your church as a place only for those who have "arrived"?
To help in managing emotions here are some helpful tips:
1. Be proactive about pursuing truth. (Phil. 4:8). Speak the truth to yourself and others, as David did in Psalm 51:8. The next time you catch yourself overreacting or assuming the worst of a situation, ask your self if you are basing your reaction on truth or speculation.
2. Be proactive on worshiping God. Make a commitment to regularly set aside time to worship God.
John Piper writes,"Worship must engage your emotions and worship must engage your thought. Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full of unspiritual fighters. Emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates flaky people who reject the discipline of rigorous thought. True worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine."
C.S. Lewis called worship "inner health made audible".
Also, worship music can refresh and restore you as well as reading the Psalms.
3. Seek God's will. In the garden, Jesus knew the cross was before him, and the battle within that He was fighting. His date with the cross was growing closer and closer, and His human emotions began come out. He became deeply troubled and distressed. He told them, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death." -Mark 14:32-34. Can you even imagine the thoughts and emotions that must have been going through His mind? Jesus felt the fear, but He did not allow His emotions to stand in the way of God's will and God's way.
Personal Action Steps:
1. Make a commitment to read a Psalm a day and journal about what you read.
2. Make a commitment to listen to worship music this week during the time that you would normally watch TV.
3. Habakkuk 3:17-18 was written in a farming society. Rewrite this in your own words using your own work profession.
Recommended book:
Warrior Poets of the 21st Century by Robin Mark
http://www.amazon.com/Warrior-Poets-21st-Century-Robin/dp/1932307788
No comments:
Post a Comment