Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is the importance of feeling my feelings. I know this sounds weird, but bear with me as I explain.
We all have feelings and emotions, even Jesus did (see for example, John 11:35, Mark 3:5, and Matthew 26:37). At the same time, we know that emotions can be deceptive, and as we grow up, we’re taught not to rely on them.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? – Jeremiah 17:9
But the danger of ignoring or brushing aside our feelings is that they will continue to linger. The solution isn’t to suppress but to feel them. Take note of your feelings, acknowledge them and then surrender them to God.
The question to ask yourself today is: What am I feeling as I start this new year?
Some helpful follow-up questions could be:
- What adjectives would I use to describe the last year? Or to describe my current state of being?
- What am I waiting on?
- What am I afraid of?
- What am I discouraged by?
- What do I hope for?
- What am I frustrated by or struggling to understand?
Someone who was an expert at feeling his feelings and then surrendering them to God was King David from the Bible.
Read, for example, Psalm 139, where David goes through a wide range of emotions while he pours them out to the Lord.
Do you recognise yourself in anything David writes?
David ends his emotional outpouring with the words:
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. – Psalms 139:23-24 NIV
David knows that his feelings are just that–feelings–and he asks God to take control of them.
Use David’s words to pray the same prayer once you have expressed your true and honest emotions to God.
