Serve My Flesh, Serve My Feelings, Serve Nothing

Man, did I wake up to some stinky news yesterday morning.  Put me in some kind of bad funky mood.  Kind of bad mood where you pick of the phone and vent.  You feel bad for the friend who got that call, right?  You should.

Here's the deal.  The news I received really wasn't bad news.  It was the manner in which I was ready to handle the news.  I wasn't.  I wasn't ready for my day.  I made a fatal mistake.

I was lying in bed with a quiet house and not one of the Little Torreses was awake yet.  That in itself is a little miracle.  I awoke on my own without an alarm and there wasn't a child standing next to my bed asking for breakfast.  What I should have done was reach over and grab my Bible and journal, but I let my flesh decide what to do.  I reached for my iPad...

Hmmmm, let's see what's coming through on email this morning.

And there it was.  My no good terrible news staring me in the face.  It seriously put my feelings in a funk.  Then my thoughts started chasing my feelings.  No bueno.  It took a good portion of the day to refocus my thoughts and control my feelings to where I wanted them to go...back to peace and happiness.

So as I was spending my morning regrouping, it became even more clear.  I could have avoided this entire situation.  Had I denied my flesh of wanting to check in with my little world BEFORE checking in with God, then I would have been prepared to handle a stinky email.  It would have allowed me to focus on what was important for my day, for my life, for my family, and for others.  It would have given me a clearer spirit and mind to handle what I was going to read.  So I got this for you today...

Serving my flesh will only serve my feelings and that will serve nothing but deceit.  God has a bigger plan for my life than how I feel about something.  When I take the time to align my thoughts with God's thoughts, I am in a much better place to serve others.

So here's to taking the time to align ourselves with God and to not serve our feelings and flesh.  Those two things will take us to really bad places.

Had I opened my Bible, written down my prayers and requests to God, and opened the book I was reading, I would have found this first...

You have to trust the favor of God to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.

-Mark Batterson

The Circle Maker  p106 

 

Reading that first would have changed my entire outlook of a little email.  I have God's favor to do what I cannot do myself.  WORD!

PS-For those of you concerned of my no good terrible rotten news.  It really wasn't that bad once I put it in perspective, but it sure did teach me a lesson!