Nothing More Than Feelings
Last Saturday, I came home to find out that the water was still on in the pool, and it needed to be turned off. So, that is what I did; I turned off the water to the pool. I walked back across the yard and looked at my shoes. They were muddy. I don't know how because Oklahoma is in the worst draught since the Dust Bowl, and it hadn't rained (and the pool DID NOT overflow this time). So, I decided to take my shoes off and place them on the front porch. I had this tiny thought that said, "What if someone took them in the middle of the night," which I ignored and placed them there anyway. Who is going to sneak up on the porch and take a pair of shoes?
The next morning, I got ready for church as usual and stepped out on the front porch. I looked down, and there was ONLY ONE SHOE on the porch. I looked everywhere for that shoe! I looked in the bushes to the side of the porch. I looked under the table on the porch. I looked out in the street, but there was no right shoe anywhere to be found. Great. I forgot to mention that these tennis shoes had inside them the special insoles that my parents so graciously purchased for me a few months earlier. These wonderful insoles go inside my work shoes as well, so on Sunday morning, I had not only one tennis shoe and one insole, but two work shoes without any support in them whatsoever.
It had to be a dog. A dog - took my shoe - off of the porch - in the middle of the night. I wanted to get mad. I really did. Stupid dog. Now I would have to buy new tennis shoes AND new insoles. And the purchase would have to wait until payday, so I still did not have any shoes to wear to work. And what I did buy would have to be black so that I could wear them to work! I wanted to get so mad. But I felt the Holy Spirit warn me not to get mad. So I obeyed. Next, I told that dog that the shoe had to come back in the Name of Jesus!
Even after that, I had to spend some time working on NOT getting mad over the situation. This happens to all of us... a lot. I know. It's happened to me before this. But when we are in a situation where it seems impossible to get out of, or we think that it's going to cost us so much, we generally tend to let our feelings vent. We vent to our mirrors. We vent to our friends. We vent to our neighbors. We vent to our co-workers. Vent, vent, vent. But all we are doing by 'venting' is glorifying the problem AND speaking words of disbelief and strife over the situation.
In the end, the only people I told the story to were my parents and my manager at work (to explain why I was wearing old and ill fitting tennis shoes to work instead of my normal work shoes). Two days later, I drove into my neighborhood, and I saw the (by this time) familiar pair of military pants laying in the road. I always think it's funny because seriously, who would leave their pants in the road? Then I looked to the left, and there was something else in the road. I pulled my truck up beside it, and looked down. It was my shoe! It was slightly dirty and had a faint dog breath odor to it, but both the shoe and the insole was intact. So, my shoes and insoles got a nice machine washing, and I had my work shoes on the next day.
There are many things that I can complain over in my life right now, but the Father is teaching me not to dwell on the negative. Don't speak against what He is doing. Don't repel blessing because you created a negative environment around you. If I had spoken about the stupid dog for those two days, or if I had chosen not to speak the Name of Jesus over the shoe, do you think it would have come back? No, because the blessing can only dwell where faith has been sown. You may not understand this yet, but you can't sow faith and disbelief together. They cancel each other out. So when you are believing for that miracle and speaking the Word over the situation, you CAN NOT go around talking to everyone about how the problem is making you feel! Your feelings are generally negative in a bad situation - you are confused, hurt, discouraged or whatever. You can't trust in your feelings (although we all do it sometimes). Jesus is the Word, and if He is Lord over your life, you can not let your feelings be lord over your life. If you have given Jesus your heart, then let Him help you control your feelings.
I know. "But feelings are natural. I can't help the way I feel!" That's not exactly true. We always have a response to a situation. You stub your toe, you FEEL like cussing. Your favorite team lost their best player, you FEEL like throwing something at your TV. A friend has cancer, you FEEL sad. Someone dies, you FEEL grieved. We all have responses to situations. That's all feelings are - a response. If you have an itch, what do you do? Scratch it. That's a response. But what would happen if we let our feelings guide us in the above situations? We'd wind up letting out a string of words that no person should ever hear (let alone know). You'd break your TV. You'd become depressed and possibly even worse. But your responses don't have to rule your behavior. Change your behavior, and the response will eventually change, too.
You can do it. We can be guided more by the Word of God than by our feelings. We can proclaim the Word of God and run our feelings into the ground. I am NOT going to let my friend die of cancer. I am going to proclaim the Word of God to him/her, and the Word of God says that he/she is healed by the stripes that Jesus bore! Sow the Word. Sow the Name. Sow faith.
(Food for thought here - "faith is the substance of things hoped for" means that it's the foundation that patience and hope are built on. A foundation -with a cornerstone called Christ - and the blessing is the roof of the building! So in the end, your patient waiting becomes the walls of the building that you have been believing that the Father has planned for you.)
So, I have had work shoes and proper insoles in my shoes because first, I obeyed the Holy Spirit and second, I did not spout off about the 'stupid slobbery neighborhood shoe thief' (but I did spout out the Name that is above all names!). Try it next time you are in a not so good situation. When my mom heard that I found my shoe, she asked if I had been praying about it. I laughed and said, "Not really. I just told the dog that he had to bring it back in the Name of Jesus!" Maybe we should all pray for the person whose military pants are still out in the road. I'm pretty sure now that the dog took those, too and left them there.
The next morning, I got ready for church as usual and stepped out on the front porch. I looked down, and there was ONLY ONE SHOE on the porch. I looked everywhere for that shoe! I looked in the bushes to the side of the porch. I looked under the table on the porch. I looked out in the street, but there was no right shoe anywhere to be found. Great. I forgot to mention that these tennis shoes had inside them the special insoles that my parents so graciously purchased for me a few months earlier. These wonderful insoles go inside my work shoes as well, so on Sunday morning, I had not only one tennis shoe and one insole, but two work shoes without any support in them whatsoever.
It had to be a dog. A dog - took my shoe - off of the porch - in the middle of the night. I wanted to get mad. I really did. Stupid dog. Now I would have to buy new tennis shoes AND new insoles. And the purchase would have to wait until payday, so I still did not have any shoes to wear to work. And what I did buy would have to be black so that I could wear them to work! I wanted to get so mad. But I felt the Holy Spirit warn me not to get mad. So I obeyed. Next, I told that dog that the shoe had to come back in the Name of Jesus!
Even after that, I had to spend some time working on NOT getting mad over the situation. This happens to all of us... a lot. I know. It's happened to me before this. But when we are in a situation where it seems impossible to get out of, or we think that it's going to cost us so much, we generally tend to let our feelings vent. We vent to our mirrors. We vent to our friends. We vent to our neighbors. We vent to our co-workers. Vent, vent, vent. But all we are doing by 'venting' is glorifying the problem AND speaking words of disbelief and strife over the situation.
In the end, the only people I told the story to were my parents and my manager at work (to explain why I was wearing old and ill fitting tennis shoes to work instead of my normal work shoes). Two days later, I drove into my neighborhood, and I saw the (by this time) familiar pair of military pants laying in the road. I always think it's funny because seriously, who would leave their pants in the road? Then I looked to the left, and there was something else in the road. I pulled my truck up beside it, and looked down. It was my shoe! It was slightly dirty and had a faint dog breath odor to it, but both the shoe and the insole was intact. So, my shoes and insoles got a nice machine washing, and I had my work shoes on the next day.
There are many things that I can complain over in my life right now, but the Father is teaching me not to dwell on the negative. Don't speak against what He is doing. Don't repel blessing because you created a negative environment around you. If I had spoken about the stupid dog for those two days, or if I had chosen not to speak the Name of Jesus over the shoe, do you think it would have come back? No, because the blessing can only dwell where faith has been sown. You may not understand this yet, but you can't sow faith and disbelief together. They cancel each other out. So when you are believing for that miracle and speaking the Word over the situation, you CAN NOT go around talking to everyone about how the problem is making you feel! Your feelings are generally negative in a bad situation - you are confused, hurt, discouraged or whatever. You can't trust in your feelings (although we all do it sometimes). Jesus is the Word, and if He is Lord over your life, you can not let your feelings be lord over your life. If you have given Jesus your heart, then let Him help you control your feelings.
I know. "But feelings are natural. I can't help the way I feel!" That's not exactly true. We always have a response to a situation. You stub your toe, you FEEL like cussing. Your favorite team lost their best player, you FEEL like throwing something at your TV. A friend has cancer, you FEEL sad. Someone dies, you FEEL grieved. We all have responses to situations. That's all feelings are - a response. If you have an itch, what do you do? Scratch it. That's a response. But what would happen if we let our feelings guide us in the above situations? We'd wind up letting out a string of words that no person should ever hear (let alone know). You'd break your TV. You'd become depressed and possibly even worse. But your responses don't have to rule your behavior. Change your behavior, and the response will eventually change, too.
You can do it. We can be guided more by the Word of God than by our feelings. We can proclaim the Word of God and run our feelings into the ground. I am NOT going to let my friend die of cancer. I am going to proclaim the Word of God to him/her, and the Word of God says that he/she is healed by the stripes that Jesus bore! Sow the Word. Sow the Name. Sow faith.
(Food for thought here - "faith is the substance of things hoped for" means that it's the foundation that patience and hope are built on. A foundation -with a cornerstone called Christ - and the blessing is the roof of the building! So in the end, your patient waiting becomes the walls of the building that you have been believing that the Father has planned for you.)
So, I have had work shoes and proper insoles in my shoes because first, I obeyed the Holy Spirit and second, I did not spout off about the 'stupid slobbery neighborhood shoe thief' (but I did spout out the Name that is above all names!). Try it next time you are in a not so good situation. When my mom heard that I found my shoe, she asked if I had been praying about it. I laughed and said, "Not really. I just told the dog that he had to bring it back in the Name of Jesus!" Maybe we should all pray for the person whose military pants are still out in the road. I'm pretty sure now that the dog took those, too and left them there.
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