Rejoice in His goodness
Rev. William Watson
We will never be totally like God, because He is our Supreme Creator. But we do have the ability to reflect His glory, (character) in our love, patience, forgiveness, kindness and faithfulness. True worship includes the full range of emotions. It may be shouts of joy or sounds of weeping. The Holy Spirit can stimulate us both to rejoice over the goodness of His Grace or to grieve over the sins requiring Him to convict us. Uncontrolled emotions can lead to bad decisions in our faith, faith experiences, our witnessing, and our prayer life. Uncontrolled emotions can also lead to making rash promises that may sound very spiritual when we make them—but may produce guilt and frustration and bring disappointment when we are forced to fulfill them. We should fight through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:20).
Keeping our emotions under control is a problem, especially in our prayer life. When we pray, it seems hard to get our minds into good working order. The first things we have to battle are wandering thoughts. Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. “When you pray, go into your room and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly,” Matthew 6:6.
We should get into the habit of dealing with God about everything, learning to open the door of our lives completely and letting God in from our first waking moment of each new day. Jesus expressed the full range of emotions under control, compassion, indignation, sorrow, and frustration. Jesus cares. We are told that “Jesus wept,” John 22:35.
I will preach at the New Hope Baptist Church, 1303 Hawkins Street, at the 11 am service. the second Sunday in February. I would love to have all of my readers in attendance.
My weekly prayer is for the reader of this commentary to become spiritually inspired of God. Become a Prayer Partner with Expressions of Faith. Request a copy of our Intercessory Prayer and God’s plan for walking daily in the Spirit. Contact Expressions of Faith at P.O. Box 330127, Nashville, Tenn. 37203 or e-mail <w310watson@aol.com>. God bless.
