“Feelings come and feelings go, but feelings are deceiving. I’ll put my trust in the word of God there is nothing else worth believing.” We walk by faith, not By sight, 2 Corinthians 5:7
What is walking by faith not by sight? It’s not walking according to how we feel, what we see, what we touch and what we see. The five physical senses. We live in a “feel good society” as far doing what we feel like doing.
As a Christian it takes faith in the fact believing that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, confessing with our mouth (action) and then the feelings come as a Christian. Whether you feel like a Christian some days or not you are basing your faith on the fact. Once we get this down and understand that we cannot be ruled by feelings in other areas of our lives, we live and walk in a different realm than a non-believer who is pulled by their five physical senses. Unbelievers are ruled by their feelings and senses, but we are to walk in the spirit and be ruled by our spirit man not by the flesh or our feelings! I’m convinced the “problem” is not being ruled by the five physical senses but being ruled by the spirit man!
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Galatians 5:16
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:25
Feelings can be fickle. There are many things I do in life I force myself to do. I took ten online college computer programming classes and did very well in them, although self-discipline to do them was hard in not attending a class. We do many things I would hope in life that we don’t feel like doing because of self-discipline. The Bible talks about self-control and discipline. I do my best to eat right and use self-control in what I eat every day. I’ve heard divorced men complain that all their wife wanted to do was sit around the house or going shopping all the time and not go out and do things. I believe many Americans lack self-discipline.
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Proverbs 25:28
Feelings can be fickle. There are many things I do in life I force myself to do. I took ten online college computer programming classes and did very well in them, although self-discipline to do them was hard in not attending a class. We do many things I would hope in life that we don’t feel like doing because of self-discipline. The Bible talks about self-control and discipline. I do my best to eat right and use self-control in what I eat every day. I’ve heard divorced men complain that all their wife wanted to do was sit around the house or going shopping all the time and not go out and do things. I believe many Americans lack self-discipline.
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Proverbs 25:28
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, Titus 2:12
I went through a period of what I call “yuppie” burn-out. It was from working full time, going to college, and cooking for six children at home. When my husband passed away, I was at the peak of my burn-out and it just added more stress to what I would call a frazzled cookie I was in life. I believe because as a runner in this life we have to learn to "pace" ourselves that is what they do in running is there are times to speed up and times to slow down. Since my husband and I were more thoroughbred horses we were not good for the "long haul" and my husband did not make it...his body gave out. There are some horses better for short distances and some horses better for long distance races. That is where you learn to pace yourself and extend your running like they did to the race horse Secretariat. They pushed the horse and kept in going, but I found that "pacing" myself comes from the quality of praise and worship I get at church and in my prayer time with the Lord during the week as far as what battles I can face in life and outbeat the enemy horse like Secretariat.
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint Isaiah 40:31
We don't like those Romeo and Juliet plots that end in tragedy. We all want a happy ending in our life. I consider my life will have a happy ending, the ending just did not turn out as I expected it would. What I have found there is a “resting in the Lord.” To me that is “letting go” as far as letting go of cares, worries, who the next husband is going to be in my life is letting go in my prayer closet before God. Resting in the Lord does not mean I sit around at home all day, it's getting his strength to go out and run the race of life. It's running it in God's strength not my own.
I’m like Jonah many times where I don’t want to do something (have a bad feeling about it) then usually I’ve seen great victories. When I am looking forward to something than it seems to flop as an experience. It’s strange, but I believe Satan has a “ball and chain” in life and that ball and chain are my feelings. What I do now is what I don’t feel like doing most of the time that is what I know I need to be doing! Like Paul said, What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:24-25. It’s Jesus Christ who delivers me from this body of sin or my feelings. I know I don’t always do as I ought as far as go where I should, do what I should, pray enough, help others, and read the Bible as much as I could.
My Lord said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6 I am a blessed when I hunger and thirst after more of God and so is everyone else who hunger and thirsts after more of God.
for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:9
I went through a period of what I call “yuppie” burn-out. It was from working full time, going to college, and cooking for six children at home. When my husband passed away, I was at the peak of my burn-out and it just added more stress to what I would call a frazzled cookie I was in life. I believe because as a runner in this life we have to learn to "pace" ourselves that is what they do in running is there are times to speed up and times to slow down. Since my husband and I were more thoroughbred horses we were not good for the "long haul" and my husband did not make it...his body gave out. There are some horses better for short distances and some horses better for long distance races. That is where you learn to pace yourself and extend your running like they did to the race horse Secretariat. They pushed the horse and kept in going, but I found that "pacing" myself comes from the quality of praise and worship I get at church and in my prayer time with the Lord during the week as far as what battles I can face in life and outbeat the enemy horse like Secretariat.
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint Isaiah 40:31
We don't like those Romeo and Juliet plots that end in tragedy. We all want a happy ending in our life. I consider my life will have a happy ending, the ending just did not turn out as I expected it would. What I have found there is a “resting in the Lord.” To me that is “letting go” as far as letting go of cares, worries, who the next husband is going to be in my life is letting go in my prayer closet before God. Resting in the Lord does not mean I sit around at home all day, it's getting his strength to go out and run the race of life. It's running it in God's strength not my own.
I’m like Jonah many times where I don’t want to do something (have a bad feeling about it) then usually I’ve seen great victories. When I am looking forward to something than it seems to flop as an experience. It’s strange, but I believe Satan has a “ball and chain” in life and that ball and chain are my feelings. What I do now is what I don’t feel like doing most of the time that is what I know I need to be doing! Like Paul said, What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:24-25. It’s Jesus Christ who delivers me from this body of sin or my feelings. I know I don’t always do as I ought as far as go where I should, do what I should, pray enough, help others, and read the Bible as much as I could.
My Lord said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6 I am a blessed when I hunger and thirst after more of God and so is everyone else who hunger and thirsts after more of God.
for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:9
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Isaiah 55:1
I had a conversation with a pastor one Sunday and he made a comment to me about women being ruled by their feelings. My son has told me that he won’t vote for a woman president, because he noticed how much his sister changes her mind. I’ve been greatly blessed in life is that I’ve been an even keel person as far as not having any horrendous mood swings every month. Going through grief has been a difficult experience to deal with a myriad of emotions from depression that I’ve never before dealt with in my life. God’s word says, it’s blessed to mourn and there is a “time to heal.” Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4. ....This is capable of two meanings: either, that those are blessed who are afflicted with the loss of friends or possessions, or that they who mourn over sin are blessed.
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, Eccl. 3:3
I’ve been to a church now four times and I’m just starting to like a church. I believe I can't base attending church on if I like it (my feelings). I did not particularly like everything about my husband when I met him. When I was in a Christian ministry they assigned me with a woman from Sweden as my buddy. I did not like her she seemed pig-headed to me. I learned to like her and she became a good friend. It’s a lot different now, because I pick my friends and it’s usually those that I know I’m going to get along with. I’ve had the same experience in college where the instructor picks your group. I’ve had college students do a good job on a group project and some not. We can pick our partner in life, we usually pick our boss as far as interviewing with him, we don’t always pick our co-workers as far as being able to get along with them, we do not pick our relatives or working at church with different personalities.
Satan is a poop scooper. He will put a bad thought in your mind against your spouse, get you say it and then act on it and then slap some illness or problem on you after he is the one that caused the negative attitude in the first place then come collect his poop. He did not have much poop to scoop up in my marriage, because we determined that we were going to avoid strife like the plague…how do you avoid the plague is to avoid people who have the plague. One of Satan’s lies I hear over and over is how couples have to argue. If you want to believe you are going to have a marriage full of arguing and strife..good luck. I’m believing for a marriage with God’s new kind of love like I had before. I don’t see how arguing all the time makes a couple more dynamic, and we had plenty of passion in our marriage and did not need a bunch of arguing to get it. In fact, both of us were burnt out from fighting with an ex all the time. We wanted to be adults not children.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 1 Cor. 13:11
I met someone on New’s Year Eve who said that he could not stand fighting because he was in the Vietnam War and said he was divorced because he could not keep fighting with his wife all the time. My husband and I had previous marriages that were war zones so we determined like that man in the Vietnam War, we were not going to fuss and fight with each other. Besides, it is hard to look in the face of love (a person who you love and loves you back and be mad for long). It would be hard to shoot a person that I would determine is not my enemy in a war. Coming into maturity is getting rid of outbursts, outbursts of anger and pride.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12
I had a conversation with a pastor one Sunday and he made a comment to me about women being ruled by their feelings. My son has told me that he won’t vote for a woman president, because he noticed how much his sister changes her mind. I’ve been greatly blessed in life is that I’ve been an even keel person as far as not having any horrendous mood swings every month. Going through grief has been a difficult experience to deal with a myriad of emotions from depression that I’ve never before dealt with in my life. God’s word says, it’s blessed to mourn and there is a “time to heal.” Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4. ....This is capable of two meanings: either, that those are blessed who are afflicted with the loss of friends or possessions, or that they who mourn over sin are blessed.
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, Eccl. 3:3
I’ve been to a church now four times and I’m just starting to like a church. I believe I can't base attending church on if I like it (my feelings). I did not particularly like everything about my husband when I met him. When I was in a Christian ministry they assigned me with a woman from Sweden as my buddy. I did not like her she seemed pig-headed to me. I learned to like her and she became a good friend. It’s a lot different now, because I pick my friends and it’s usually those that I know I’m going to get along with. I’ve had the same experience in college where the instructor picks your group. I’ve had college students do a good job on a group project and some not. We can pick our partner in life, we usually pick our boss as far as interviewing with him, we don’t always pick our co-workers as far as being able to get along with them, we do not pick our relatives or working at church with different personalities.
Satan is a poop scooper. He will put a bad thought in your mind against your spouse, get you say it and then act on it and then slap some illness or problem on you after he is the one that caused the negative attitude in the first place then come collect his poop. He did not have much poop to scoop up in my marriage, because we determined that we were going to avoid strife like the plague…how do you avoid the plague is to avoid people who have the plague. One of Satan’s lies I hear over and over is how couples have to argue. If you want to believe you are going to have a marriage full of arguing and strife..good luck. I’m believing for a marriage with God’s new kind of love like I had before. I don’t see how arguing all the time makes a couple more dynamic, and we had plenty of passion in our marriage and did not need a bunch of arguing to get it. In fact, both of us were burnt out from fighting with an ex all the time. We wanted to be adults not children.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 1 Cor. 13:11
I met someone on New’s Year Eve who said that he could not stand fighting because he was in the Vietnam War and said he was divorced because he could not keep fighting with his wife all the time. My husband and I had previous marriages that were war zones so we determined like that man in the Vietnam War, we were not going to fuss and fight with each other. Besides, it is hard to look in the face of love (a person who you love and loves you back and be mad for long). It would be hard to shoot a person that I would determine is not my enemy in a war. Coming into maturity is getting rid of outbursts, outbursts of anger and pride.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Colossians 3:8
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Ephesians 4:31
We need to be controlling our tongue. Not slapping a person in their face physically or with the tongue, not throwing things. I like a horse that can bridle his tongue and knows when to bite his tongue. There were many times in my marriage I had to "bite my tongue" and go pray for my husband if I did not like the way he was acting or what he was saying. My husband did the same thing, he bit his tongue on occassions.
We need to be controlling our tongue. Not slapping a person in their face physically or with the tongue, not throwing things. I like a horse that can bridle his tongue and knows when to bite his tongue. There were many times in my marriage I had to "bite my tongue" and go pray for my husband if I did not like the way he was acting or what he was saying. My husband did the same thing, he bit his tongue on occassions.
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, Galatians 5:20
For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 2 Cor. 12:20
A lack of a team effort can be in the church and it also can be in a marriage where only one person can be pulling all the yoke of the marriage either spiritually or physically around the house as far as getting things done. There is advantage of being single and that is when you don’t have oxen you don’t have to clean up any messes, but then the harvest is not as good. There can be messes as far when a person gets sick and you help them when they get sick all over the walls and the carpeting, but then there are messes when a spouse does not obey the Lord in his/her life at times (for better or worse).
Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest. Proverbs 14:4
A lack of a team effort can be in the church and it also can be in a marriage where only one person can be pulling all the yoke of the marriage either spiritually or physically around the house as far as getting things done. There is advantage of being single and that is when you don’t have oxen you don’t have to clean up any messes, but then the harvest is not as good. There can be messes as far when a person gets sick and you help them when they get sick all over the walls and the carpeting, but then there are messes when a spouse does not obey the Lord in his/her life at times (for better or worse).
Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest. Proverbs 14:4
our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets. Psalm 144:14
You can pull more burdens with a husband or a wife, but you have to deal with their petty faults and that person can “grind your flesh at times” or trouble in the flesh.
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17
You can pull more burdens with a husband or a wife, but you have to deal with their petty faults and that person can “grind your flesh at times” or trouble in the flesh.
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17
Now we who are strong ought to be patient with the weaknesses (infirmities or quirks) of those who are not strong and must stop pleasing ourselves. Romans 15:1
But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. 1 Cor. 7:8
What is the testimony I want to give unsaved people when life ends in tragedy for a Juliet? That we loved each other and that is the testimony that each of us can give others who do not know the Lord. Our love for each other was put through the refiner’s fire for the 15 years and it came out as pure gold. That is the message that reached my family, my friends and our co-workers. God can take any piece of clay which was the two of us and mold it the way he wants it as long as we let him do the molding. I don’t know much about molding clay, but sometimes maybe new clay molds better than the old depending on how much water or if you keep it moist. The spirit of God is the water that keeps this old hunk of clay in my heart soft before him. Our love for Jesus is put through the refiner’s fire every day and we can expect it will come out as pure gold.
But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. Job 23:10
What is the testimony I want to give unsaved people when life ends in tragedy for a Juliet? That we loved each other and that is the testimony that each of us can give others who do not know the Lord. Our love for each other was put through the refiner’s fire for the 15 years and it came out as pure gold. That is the message that reached my family, my friends and our co-workers. God can take any piece of clay which was the two of us and mold it the way he wants it as long as we let him do the molding. I don’t know much about molding clay, but sometimes maybe new clay molds better than the old depending on how much water or if you keep it moist. The spirit of God is the water that keeps this old hunk of clay in my heart soft before him. Our love for Jesus is put through the refiner’s fire every day and we can expect it will come out as pure gold.
But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. Job 23:10
These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:7
For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. Psalm 66:10
Refiner’s Fire
Purify my heart
Refiner’s Fire
Purify my heart
Let me be as gold and precious silver
Purify my heart
Let me be as gold pure gold
Refiner's fire
My heart's one desire
My heart's one desire
Is to be holy
Set apart for You Lord
I choose to be holy
Set apart for my master
Ready to do your will
Purify my heart,
Purify my heart,
cleanse me from within and make me holy.
Purify my heart,
cleanse me from my sin, deep within
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