I cannot tell you how many times in conversations in my mind throughout the day, I find myself saying, “I feel _______.

My emotions can range from happy, sad, encouraged, frustrated, elated, disappointed, hurt and many others.

Even in regards to my walk with Jesus, I can have days where my feelings can range from weak-kneed to standing strong upon His promises.

Why do our feelings have so much control? Is this how it should be?

Setting the Tone

I can let my feelings set the tone for my day.

What about you?

Do you allow your feelings to control your thoughts or demeanor of the day?

I wonder if we realize the gamut of our feelings or even how quickly they can change? What about the days where we have deemed ourselves having a “bad day”? Once our mind is made up, it seems all that crosses our path is filtered through this lens or skew of a “bad day”.

Even worse, how often can I hold on to feelings of hurt from another, cultivate them and even allow them to grow set up roots of bitterness and anger in my heart? We are cautioned against this.

“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.” (Heb 12:14-15 ESV)

Our bitterness is not without consequence. My heart can be focused on my “hurt”, and it can become a distraction and then I miss the very point of my existence-to glorify God and make Him known to the watching world!

We Must Preach, But What?

How can we combat this tendency of letting our feelings dictate our day? I would offer the importance of preaching to ourselves.

We do it already, often times without even being aware of this. We may only think of “preaching” as to listening to God’s Word being expounded. I would say it could apply to all of our thoughts that we allow to recirculate in our minds.

Webster’s Dictionary defines preaching as “to urge acceptance or abandonment of an idea or course of action; specifically: to exhort in an officious or tiresome manner”.

Would that not qualify to all the voices and internal conversations we have in our mind throughout the day? How often are we telling ourselves we don’t measure up, we are not as good as _____, we have not been successful, or our life has no value or importance?

The Source

We MUST recognize the source of these lies.

We ABSOLUTELY must take these thoughts captive! They have no bearing and should occupy no space in our minds!

You know as well as I that the source of these lies is the enemy of our souls.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (Jn 10:10)

John reveals to us the enemy’s purpose: to steal the work God has done in our hearts, destroy the impact of our testimony and in unbelievers to kill by bringing ultimate death and separation from God for eternity. In believers, he will do all he can do to discredit our witness to the world around us.

We recognize this is a very real problem, so how do we effectively combat it?

Realizing how much our feelings play into our day to day allows us to clearly see the importance of how to effectively battle: God’s Word and prayer.

We are going to daily and moment-by-moment, preach to ourselves whatever is in our hearts and minds.

If His truth is not in our minds, then we will naturally repeat the lies of the world and the enemy. In time, we will begin to believe and act on those lies.

We must be intentional in pouring His truth into our minds as we wrestle through our thoughts and feelings during our day.

Renew, Renew, Renew….

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”(Rom 12:2).

This renewing is not meant to be a one-time event, but rather a continual process. If we are going to effectively win this battle against the enemy, it must be daily renewal; daily preaching truth!

Many times our hearts are going to be “feeling” something other than where we want to rest.

If we can continue to preach truth to our minds, our hearts will “catch up”. This is the beauty of continually renewing of our mind, the beauty of the Gospel at work.

In time, we experience the faithfulness of God as He brings victory over our struggles and thoughts. I can imagine you can quickly recall those times where you have experienced this! What joy and elation can fill our hearts and souls! We must hold on to those reminders and keep them forefront in our minds for our “next time”.

So here is a laundry list for our thoughts. Here is what we can fill our minds with …

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Phil 4:8)

A Very Real and Effective Way to War

About a year ago, a dear friend once encouraged me with this very practical advice regarding an issue I was really wrestling with. She told me to get my Bible, find all the verses I could find relating to this particular issue and write them down on notecards. She then told me to carry them around, and when I felt that struggle come back to whip out those cards and start reading through them.

So, I tried it. You know what? She was right!

I used google to do a quick search on “my hope being in God alone, and Him being sufficient.” I checked the context of the passages and found more verses than I could copy down!

What surprised me was the true power that came from His Word. As I spent time copying down those verses, I could sense a huge shifting of my attitude. He was at work! He was transforming my heart to bank on the truth of His Word!

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb 4:12)

What I experienced that day was the living and active word of God. I have since implemented this strategy on several other occasions. I have these “stacks” of verses readily accessible when I feel a common struggle or attitude resurface.

Go Ahead, Try It

I would encourage you to give this a try!

It might be easy to reason away that this could really make a difference. I was skeptical. After experiencing the freedom from battling and the Lord granting victory, I am convinced of the power that Scripture truly holds!

I think it is often an untapped power that I underestimate.

I would love to hear from you.

What do you use in your life to help combat the thoughts that enter into your mind each day?

How do you practically place your trust in God alone and His truth, rather than your feelings?

I am praying that God would allow the truths and power of His Word to sink deeply into our hearts and souls. I am asking that He would encourage your hearts that victory over our feelings is not only possible, but rather how He desires us to live! Blessings to each of you as we place God’s truth above our feelings.

can we trust our feelings?