Truth Trumps Emotion

     Every year I choose a word or phrase that will be the focus of the ladies’ ministry of our church. We have spent some amazing time focusing and seeking God’s Word about grace, gratitude, giving, and finding our best yet, but by far the phrase that has impacted me the most was our phrase for 2018 - TRUTH TRUMPS EMOTION.

     This phrase impacted me so much because in the years leading up to this revelation, I could see it lived out in so many ways. The Lord allowed me to see real-life situations, as well as first-hand experiences, of truth trumping how we should feel. I watched my sweet cousin and her husband fight and lose his battle with small cell lung cancer. They fought with such grace. They trusted, worshiped, served, and sought the Lord with their whole hearts. Truth truly did trump their emotions. Yes, they were hurting and scared, and I’m sure devastated by the chain of events that had forever altered their future. BUT GOD! I watched them hold on to what they knew to be true more than to the way they were feeling.

     Another family was fighting for a husband and father with a brain tumor. This family loved and served the Lord with their whole hearts. The diagnosis of this inoperable brain tumor was quick, and the effects were brutal. As the family went through this journey, the wife blogged. She blogged truth and emotions, but the truth always triumphed her emotions. The truth the Lord had revealed to her trumped her hurts, her questions, her tiredness. God was her strength and her comfort during the darkest times in her life.

     Another precious friend miscarried. Broken and spilled out she found comfort and strength by focusing on what she knew to be true rather than how she felt. Her and her husband, along with the better part of our congregation, had lost everything in the flood of 2016. As I watched family after family seek the Lord as they gutted their homes, struggled to rebuild, and look for the good in the rubble that was their homes, I was able to see first-hand how the Lord used the flood to grow people, change perspectives, and teach His people about grace and humility and complete dependence on Christ.

     Did these folks struggle? Absolutely, but in their struggles, they fought hard to see the truth. I watched them seek the truth. I watched them look for the Lord. I watched them find peace and rest when the only place it could be found would be in the arms of a loving Savior.

     What is this truth that trumps our emotions, our circumstances, our realities in this sin-stained life? This truth is that God truly is good (Psalm 145:9, The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made.). He is a good Father, and what he allows into our lives, He uses to make us look more like Him (Isaiah 64:8 But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand). As believers when we suffer, whether it be because of things out of our control or because of the consequences of our own choices, we can have faith by trusting in the truth. The Truth that:

• This is not our home...this life is temporary. Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

• The Lord promises to never leave us or forsake us. Deuteronomy 31:8 - And the LORD, he that goes before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

• The Lord will fight for us. Exodus 14:14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

• The Lord will give us strength. Isaiah 40:29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.

• We don’t have to fear. Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

• If we confess our sins, the Lord will forgive us. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

• The Lord God loves us unconditionally. Romans 8:38-39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• God’s grace is sufficient. 2 Corinthians 12:9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

This is the truth, precious friends. My prayer is that we can hold tight to these truths and promises of God...that we can look for the good, look for the grace...and see the goodness of God...so that when troubles comes, when suffering comes, when we have questions, the Truth of God will trump how we feel. The Truth of God will trump our thoughts. The Truth of God will sustain us.

Kayce