Bet you’re thinking that’s a pretty weird title for a post. Especially if your a woman and (if you admit it) your feelings often define and govern your every move. Let me explain.

My bible study group (a favorite group of girlfriends that met at my house on Wednesday mornings during the school year) is off for the summer. One of the girls came up with the brilliant idea of doing a summer “e-study” – we all read the same book, one chapter a week, and discuss it through email. We are working our way through “Lessons I Learned in the Dark: Steps to Walking By Faith, Not By Sight” by Jennifer Rothschild. If you haven’t read this, RUN, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore and get it. It will meet you right where you are. But, I digress…

I read something today that will revolutionize the way you live if you can grasp and implement it.

First, a scripture:
“For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” Hebrews 12:2 NASB (italics mine)

Now the concept (excerpt from the book):
What an awesome example Jesus gave us! He had feelings of shame, but He held them in low esteem. What we hold in high esteem will eventually govern us, but what we hold in low esteem, we will govern. Yes, we need to acknowledge our feelings, but we should never regard them more highly than God’s Word. Don’t ever bow to your feelings because you hold them in such high regard. Instead, make them bow to your God.”

Don’t you find this to be so true? How many times have you made decisions based on your feelings instead of what you know is true? Have you ever ended up way off the path, perhaps even on a path of destruction? Some of us are fortunate to realize it before any real damage is done; others wake up in a stupor in the aftermath of catastrophe. Making your feelings bow to God will keep you on the right road and allow you to experience the peace that passes all understanding in the midst of emotional turmoil.

The book goes on to say this: Often, we can’t choose the feelings we experience. But we can always choose our response to them…It may seem risky at the time, but if we don’t esteem God’s eternal Word more highly than we do our fleeting human feelings, we’ll miss the blessings that wait on the other side of choosing to trust.

Like I said, if you can grasp this concept and implement it, it will change your life. Certainly, acknowledge your feelings – they are very real and created by God to set us apart from the rest of His creation and allow us to really relate with one another. But, He never intended them to be our guide. That’s His job.