DAY 30

No matter what emotional battle you are facing and fighting today, when you tap into the wisdom of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, you are guaranteed to win whatever battle you encounter. No longer are you a victim of vicious emotional outrage and sludge but you are more than a conqueror because of Christ's great love for you.

God really does have a plan for your daily life and His plan is one of joy, peace and victory. God desperately needs you to conquer your emotional issues because you are an important part of His grander plan at this historical juncture. If you continue to wallow in the blahs, in anger and in depression, the world will be missing out on the gift that you have been created to be. You must never think that you are just a number to God and can get away with flaunting your disappointment and fear in a disproportionate demonstration. You are not merely one of the mass of humanity, but you are a valuable resource who is able to bring significant change at this historic moment.

Will you purpose to be the best you possible? Or will you be a warped shadow of humanity who deviates emotionally from the plan of God for his or her life? God needs you! He needs you to be a living demonstration of joy and peace when your world is falling apart. He needs you to be a beautiful masterpiece of righteousness and patience in a culture gone wild. God needs men and women in every generation who will declare, "My life is not about me and my feelings. My life is about serving God and revealing His character to my world!"

Will you be remembered for the song of your heart or the screech of your life? We all will leave a legacy that is determined by our daily emotional choices. The emotional and spiritual legacy with which you choose to endow the following generations is more important than the finances, houses or lands that you leave. As you gaze upon the emotional smorgasbord that your culture, your family heritage and your circumstances offer for the substance of your life, never forget that God gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him!

HOLY EMOTIONS:BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO EVERY DAY CHALLENGES

DAY 29

We do, indeed, have an enemy who is in constant warfare with us because he does not want us to live the life that God has in store for all of us. The devil is relentless in his attempts to rob you of your abundant life.  Many of the weapons in the enemy's arsenal are emotional reactions because he cannot touch our spirits and so his twisted plan is to communicate with our soul.  The enemy will try to deceive any one of us into thinking that we deserve to walk in unforgiveness or that no one understands our particular pain.  When we agree with him in his deception, our emotional habits will mimic the devil's choices rather than God's abundance.

One of the most obvious ways that Satan tries to deny Christians their ability to live an abundant life is by trying to convince them that they are entitled to negative emotions.  The devil is thrilled when you agree with him that you are indeed entitled to worry, exhibit unforgiveness or show outrageous anger and then he rubs his nasty little hands together with glee when he tricks you into blatantly throwing a hissy fit of human ugliness.  God does not want you to agree with the devil: He wants you to be like Him.  God loves you enough to discipline you until you concede that neither you nor the devil has a better idea than God!

Whether you are 8 or 88, no one enjoys the process of discipline.   Anyone who desires to be used in a consequential way by God, understands the divine prerequisite in overcoming one's own fleshly responses to life.  Your flesh, which also can be recognized as your human emotions, stands in opposition to your spirit and to God's Spirit in you, unless you have learned not only to discipline the flesh but crucify it as well.

If your most passionate desire is to be a grand display of the fruit of the Spirit and the personality of God, the price that you must pay is to crucify the flesh and to discipline your emotions.  If you are able to cooperate with God in this difficult endeavor, you will be positioning yourself for availability in carrying out God's significant plan at this time in history.

DAY 28

God has not stopped being God because you are in the valley. He has not stopped being a God of goodness and kindness because you are either disappointed or have a broken heart. We would all love to spend our lives on the top of a mountain. We would all love to vigorously breathe in that fresh mountain air and take in the magnificent view. You can see things on the mountaintop that you would never see from the valley. Things take on their rightful perspective from the mountaintop. You are literally on top of the world. It's a place fit for a king or queen - of the mountain!

None of us wants to buy real estate in the valley of despair and disappointment. There is an extremely limited vision in the lower places and you are not able to see beyond the next grove of trees. And yet it is in the valley where vegetation grows and where flowers bloom. There is no growth on the top of a mountain but you will only find rocks and boulders there. The top of a mountain is no place to put down roots - that happens in the valley below. It is in the valley where the most magnificent growth of your life will happen and it is there that the fruit of the Spirit will grow in lush abundance. May I just say it this way: In the valley where your heart was broken will be the place of your greatest harvest.

God wants our cups to run over not only when life is good and the view is spectacular; He wants our cups to run over in the valley of pain and in the desert of brokenness. God sets before you a table of blessing that will heal your broken heart and feed your hungry soul.

God wants you to be a man or a woman who knows that disappointment does not have the power to dis-appoint. God wants you to be a person who snuggles into His presence during times of brokenness and despair. God wants you to be a Christian who never blames but always blesses. God wants you to be a believer who bears fruit at the worst moment of life.

HOLY EMOTIONS:BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO EVERY DAY CHALLENGES

DAY 27

There is a well-treasured saying that even Christians take comfort from during times of duress and tragedy, "Time heals all wounds." May I just tell you loudly - I OBJECT!! Time has no inherent healing power. Only God has healing power! I know people  who are just as bitter and angry today as they were ten years ago. Time hasn't healed their souls. I know people who are playing the blame game louder today than they were 30 years ago. Time has not healed these exhausted, hoarse souls.

Only Jesus has healing power and so if you have a broken heart and long for comfort, then you must burrow into His presence where miracles happen not because of time, but because of Him. Are you allowing the nurturing closeness that He gives especially to the brokenhearted to heal your heart today?

No one can mend a broken heart but the Lord. Other people's words will encourage you and bring a measure of healing but the ultimate healing is always from the Lord. Kind deeds and gestures may remove the sting from a broken heart, but nothing and no one other than the Lord can place that crowning healing touch on your life. He has the power, love and divine skill to actually cure you from the extraordinary pain that you are going through.

God is able to restore your soul and perform a spiritual heart transplant if that is what it takes to move you into health and hope again. This seems impossible when you have a broken heart but it is not impossible to God! The will of God is always restoration and healing.

We can easily understand the concept that the Holy Spirit is endeavoring to communicate through the psalmist in the phrase, " - and binds up their wounds." The word picture that is being painted through the Hebrew language is the beautiful illustration of a tailor gently mending and sewing together that which was torn apart. If you have a broken heart, friend, I know Someone who has the expert skills to easily and perfectly mend it. Not only is He able to repair your broken heart, but He has the desire to do it.

HOLY EMOTIONS: BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO EVERY DAY CHALLENGES

Day 26

A broken heart is epically greater than mere disappointment and whips into our lives with a force that leaves everything forever changed. A broken heart will make you wretch with pain and heave with sorrow. A broken heart will leave you gasping for breath. God knew that while we are living this side of heaven that there would be people, events and issues that would break the hearts of His beloved children and so He has a plan for the most devastating moment in your life.

The word "broken" in Hebrew is the word shabar and it means "to rend violently, wreck or crush; to maim, cripple, to shatter or break." The ancient Hebrew is a very descriptive language and so this word shabar comes not only with a definition, but also with situations that it was used in the description of. This word was used to describe ships that had been splintered and torn from stem to stern due to ferocious and wild winds. It was also used to describe the action of tearing and ripping that wild, ravenous beasts performed upon their prey. It could literally be translated "the ruptured hearted ones." The word for "heart" in this particular Scripture is the word leb and it is referring to the soul or heart of a man. It encompasses one's moral character, appetites, emotions, passions and even the mind and the memory.

When the Psalmist declares that "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted," his words are words spoken with tender care and great compassion. He is reminding all of Christendom in the epochs yet to come that the Lord is lovingly attentive to those who are enduring unimaginable pain. This pain may have been caused by a great tempest in your life or by a wild and ferocious person, but the Lord is standing attentively beside you paying diligent attention to your shattered and bleeding heart.

If you have ever suffered from this torturous condition, I can assure you that you were never out of God's care. If, today, you are emotionally torn apart and wonder how you will make it through one more today, I want to comfort you with the surety that He is with you now.

HOLY EMOTIONS:BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO EVERY DAY CHALLENGES

DAY 25

If there is one place that God feels at home, it is in your praises. God sits down, puts up His lovely feet and relaxes when a believer chooses to worship. Conversely, when you throw a tantrum and rant and rave and shout out blame toward heaven, God is uncomfortable dwelling in that place. Our hearts are the dwelling places of God and we must be very careful as we determine the kind of atmosphere that we have created for the Lord to live in. I have learned in so many situations in my life, that the Lord is more interested in my heart than He is in changing my circumstances. Because the cry of my heart is to be more like Him every day, then, I, too, must have greater regard and pay more prayerful attention to what is developing in my heart than what is happening in my circumstances. We ask God to change our circumstances when what He desires is for our circumstances to change us.

As a believer, you have a choice to either magnify your pain and your disappointing circumstances or magnify your God in spite of your pain. Some of us talk more about our sadness and distress than we do about the Lord whom we serve. I can always tell by what a person talks about what he or she  has chosen, either consciously or subconsciously, to magnify.

As I meditate on the great men and women of God in the Bible who chose to serve Him and were used significantly at their historical time, there is not one who did not have to deal with disappointment. Esther was an orphan raised by a bachelor uncle and yet God used her to save the entire nation of Jews. Joseph was ridiculed by his brothers and was sold into slavery and yet he rose to second in command in Egypt and strategized to save his countrymen from severe famine. Daniel was kidnapped out of his childhood home and was forced into a den of ravenous, fierce lions and yet God used him as a force for righteousness in Babylon. God is not finished with you yet and He works with His children until He wins! Your disappointment does not have the power to dis-appoint you but may actually place you in a strategic position to be used by God.

HOLY EMOTIONS:BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO EVERY DAY CHALLENGES

DAY 24

So many things in life disappoint us. If you allowed yourself to do so, you could spend a large portion of every day of your life dealing with the disappointment that someone or something has thrown your way. Disappointment could easily become the color of our lives, due to the people and events that never quite meet our high expectations.

The apostle Paul, the writer of the book of Romans, gives us a better way to handle disappointments than being disappointed! What Paul is patiently teaching in this tactically important passage of Scripture is that disappointments do not have the power to dis-appoint you! God has appointed you for goodness and for destiny, therefore disappointments have no power to undo what God has already done. When we become emotionally stressed out and frustrated due to the daily disappointments in life, we are giving each disappointment extremely too much authority in our lives. One of the greatest keys in dealing with disappointments is to keep them in their proper perspective.

To "dis-appoint" means that your destiny has been forever changed; that once you were appointed for destiny and significance but that the disappointing event has forever altered your eternal purpose. "Dis-appointment" would imply that once you were appointed and that some circumstance has stolen your appointment. Daily occurrences or events do not have the authority to dis-appoint you from God's appointment for you!

Paul instructs the Body of Christ for all generations to come, that our response to disappointments should be wholehearted exultation. The King James Bible translates this verse using an incredible word, " - we glory in tribulations, also ..."

We have had it all wrong! We have mistakenly believed that tribulations, or disappointments, are tragic, life-altering obstacles, when the Bible, which is our compass into all Truth, tells us that disappointments are our finest hour. It is the opportunity that Christians have to show that we, indeed, are different and that we take this moment to reveal the glory that has been placed within us. We don't cry because of disappointments, we rejoice in them. We don't wail due to disappointments, but we look for the fingerprint of God to reveal itself.

HOLY EMOTIONS: BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO EVERY DAY CHALLENGES

DAY 23

David was a common man with an uncommon heart. He struggled with emotional outrage, just as you and I do. He stood on the edge of the black pit of depression times too numerous to count and thus, he knew what it took to battle the blahs as well. David chose to command his soul, which is the birthplace of our thoughts, emotions and personality, to bless the Lord. This phrase is constructed in the imperative, which means that it is not an option but a definitive command. David was, in effect saying, "Soul, no matter how crummy you feel, you will bless the Lord! Personality, get over yourself and praise the Lord! Now! Emotions, shut your whining, complaining mouth and open up to worship the Lord!"

Praise will reform the atmosphere of your life in a way that nothing else has the power to do. There is one person and one person alone who keeps you from rejoicing. You might try to blame it on the devil but he does not have the power to inhibit your heart from breaking into song. The devil actually has realized that he doesn't need to mute your ability to worship because this other person has done such a thorough job that the devil's devious ways are no longer needed. Who is this powerful inhibitor that stands between you and the symphonic explosion of worship? You! You do! You choose not to rejoice when you are consumed with the not-so-benign blahs.

There is really only one reason why a Christian who loves Jesus wholeheartedly would choose not to rejoice. There is one reason that can be expressed in an infinite number of ways. Selfishness. Self-centered living. Self-awareness. Looking out for #1! Self-preservation. My way or the highway. Life is all about me. I don't feel like it. I don't gotta if I don't wanna.

It is your choice. You choose to magnify self today or to magnify God. Choose today.

HOLY EMOTIONS:BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO EVERY DAY CHALLENGES

DAY 22

Every night when the clock strikes midnight, you don't turn into a pumpkin but you are the recipient of a brand new, shining gift. We all receive the same amount of this gift regardless of weight, age, education, beauty, job description or marital status. When each new day raises its sleepy head, you are the sole owner of 1,440 of the most powerful commodity ever known in the history of mankind. At precisely one second after midnight, every single day of your life, heaven opens its windows and gives to you 1,440 untouched and valuable minutes to spend. How you spend your minutes is entirely up to you! Time is free, but it is priceless!

You can gossip or you can worship - you can be filled with anger or with gratitude - you can jog five miles or watch television all day long - you can read a book or go to the mall. You, and you alone, choose how you will capitalize on this extravagant and priceless gift. You can choose to laugh or to cry - to whine or rejoice - to be negative or to be positive - to be bitter or to be better. These 1,440 pieces of time belong to you and to no one else but you! They are not your spouse's or your boss's or your children's to spend.

It is true that there are things that we have to do. Most of us must work but we choose how we work. We can either go to the office with a chip on our shoulder, filled with angst and negativity or we can walk in with a happy heart, a solid work ethic and praying for those in our office. You can hate every minute that you are at work and waste time by gossiping,  playing computer games and sneaking out the door five minutes early. Or you can know that God has set you in this particular office to be a blessing and to bring the excellence and character of God into your workplace.

It is true, you have to take care of aging parents, raise your children and take out that dreaded trash. Nevertheless, you choose how to do your have-to's. You can march through life with heavy steps and a frustrated heart or you can perform all of the necessities in life with patience, love and joy.

HOLY EMOTIONS:BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO EVERY DAY CHALLENGES

DAY 21

What exactly are the blahs?  This headache of the soul cannot truly be defined as "depression" because you are still able to function if you have been targeted by the blahs.  You are still choosing, however lethargically, to place one foot in front of the other.  You are still able to interact with people, although your answers are not quite as scintillating or vibrant.  You have not retreated into a cave yet although languishing underneath an afghan, a long nap and complete quiet sure are tempting.  Every day.  All day.


 You are able to get up every morning, although you only function at half of your potential.  You are not depressed, but neither are you joyful or excited about anything at all.  Day after day come and go in a vacuum of gray nothingness.  You smile now and then but it never goes all the way to your heart.  Your get up and go ...  got up and went.  Somewhere.  You are just not sure where it got up and went to!

This is your daily game plan and guaranteed life strategy to beat the blahs.  Every day that has been generously given to you by the Lord is a new opportunity to manage your day with praise.  God gave you this day and designed it especially with you in His mind.  He has a plan for you every single day of your life that always includes a liberal dose of praise.  If you want the assurance that you are participating in God's will for your life on a daily basis, it is vital that you start your day with praise, that you fill it with worship and that you end it with thanksgiving.  From the first moment of consciousness to your last waking thought at night, make it a choice of your will to only magnify the Lord and never question Him.  We are not a people who blame the Lord, we are a people who bless the Lord!