S04E071, Getting Past The Gag Reflex, Andy B 2 Minute Video
Feelings come and go. They can be like the changing of the winds at the seaside and, if we let them, they’ll blow us round in circles. Feelings are a great way of measuring our emotions. They act as a thermometer for our body. But, feelings can lie too!
I’ve used this illustration many times, but it is so true: you can eat a pudding, following a huge meal, but then feel ill because you ate too much. And yet, you felt like you had the room to eat it before you began. What happened? You trusted your feelings, and got it wrong because feelings change.
So, it’s really important that when we feel something that is going to leave a changing effect on us, or someone else, that we don’t allow our feelings - our emotions - to guide our actions. Yes, of course, please do listen to your feelings, when they alert you to something. But check those feelings against the word of God – the bible. It is exactly like a plumbline used by builders to ensure a wall is vertical: the bible helps us develop healthily, without leaning one way or the other.
God made us with feelings, and to experience all sorts of emotions. But when we allow those feelings to make us lean too far wone way, we will fall over! Which is why God tells us to renew our minds every day, so we can start each day with a clean start, and not drag into this day the issues from yesterday.
So be aware of how you feel – your emotions. They can save you from danger. However, they can lead you into danger as quickly as they can alert you to it so use them responsibly, ensuring you measure how you feel against the only certainty we have in this world – a relationship with Jesus Christ, being filled with the Holy Spirit and reading the Bible.
Just a thought...
Andy B
Listen
Download
Transcript
0:08
So, Andy B 2 Minute Video and I was thinking about Getting Past The Gag Reflex. Now this isn't about eating. This is about emotions and feelings.
0:17
Everywhere you look, in the news today, you'll see so much about 'I feel this way', 'I felt this way', fWell, this is how I feel'. The problem with feelings is they change massively within the course of a day.
0:30
I've often used the illustration of eating a massive meal and feeling like you want dessert, eating the dessert, and then feeling sick 'cos you ate too much food, because your feelings were wrong. And feelings can often be wrong. They can be a great thermometer. I've said this many times. Feelings can be a brilliant thermometer.
0:47
You're feeling angry, why am I angry? Am I thirsty? Am I hungry? Am I afraid? Am I scared?
0:52
I'm feeling really sad. Well, have I got a problem or medication? Has someone hurt me or upset me? And feelings are a great way to prompt a thought about how we are. They're a great way of conducting a kind of self diagnostic health check if you like. How you feel is important, and it really matters. But we've got to be so careful not to let our feelings dictate our actions. Because by the time we were eating that cake, and it was really good in our eyes, and now we're feeling really sick, but we felt like we had the room. And, you know, it takes what? 20 minutes or so for food to get from here, to here, and then back again to your brain, for you to realise you don't need any food. So when we're eating food, we've got to be careful. The feelings will dictate to us if we're not careful, what we do. And we're surrounded by people who feel something, therefore they do this or that.
1:44
One of the things I think has been quite sad as we've empowered, some of our younger people, oure youth in such a way that's really not helpful. It's quite dangerous to empower people in certain ways. And we've seen this in society in so many ways, this kind of self entitled, 'Well I have a right to this, therefore I feel this, therefore I am'. But who you feel is not who you are. As Christians who we feel, it's got nothing to do with our relationship with Jesus Christ because who He is defines what we become. Because our relationship with Jesus Christ takes us to heaven.
2:16
I've had a couple of weeks where I've felt pretty low. I felt really rubbish on Monday and Tuesday. I felt really down and fed up. And, by the end of the week, I'm buzzing and I'm bouncing. That's the problem with feelings. They lie to us.
2:28
So, if you're feeling something, check it out, speak to friends, go to the Bible, go to the word, go to God in prayer and say 'This thing that I'm feeling, is it a passing thing, or is it a sustaining thing, is this God's wanting to say something to me or because I need to change something?
2:44
Let's check our feelings out.
2:46
Just a thought.
Andy B, 11/05/2022