Emotions

Emotions. They're like the colors of the rainbow, right? Ranging from every possible point of the spectrum to another... with all kinds of little blended mixtures in between...

Who hasn't experienced that feeling of "happy/sad" or "scared/excited"... right? We're all humans here, and we are all, by human nature, designed to display an arrant of emotions on a very regular basis.

I'm not writing today to talk about the difference between happy and sad though. I'm writing in the spirit to discuss the question of what it means when your natural human emotions feel like a hindrance to your spiritual growth and walk with the Lord.

We, as Christians and true believers, can feel extreme levels of internal joy and gratitude when we think of the sheer greatness and power of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Simply remembering the grand sacrifice that was made on our behalf or the comfort of knowing that He will never leave us or foresake us is enough to send a person into a whirlwind of glee and elation!

The trouble comes though when even though we have the internal joy in our spirit, we can't help but feel a bit down or a bit low. Saddened and seemingly depressed sometimes, we find ourselves crying or moping for no real reason other than just feeling well...blue 🔵🤷🏾‍♀️ It pretty much sums up the concept of this site... Feeling blessed and overjoyed in the spirit but still feeling rather stressed and lackluster on the outside.

Now being "blessed but still stressed" isn't a 100% all-the-time mind space to be in. No, much of the time, we can experience genuine peace and contentment in the Lord our God without any hidden feelings of sadness or distress. The B.B.S.S. state of mind is just a feeling that can loom over a person from time to time when life isn't throwing tasty lemonade at us (but instead a bag of sour apples).

What are the children of the Most High God supposed to do in these instances?? It feels so wrong to be sad when the Lord has given us so much to be thankful for... And it feels like we are failing if we think too much about the way we wish things were in this life when we know full well that our true and eternal reward awaits in heaven (the New Kingdom).

Well, I discovered today through the help of the Holy Spirit  that, regardless of the why behind the B.B.S.S. mind space, the absolute best thing to do (and I know, believe me, it doesn't feel good at first...just honestly makes you want to cry a little harder) is to immerse oneself into prayer AND worship. 

Praying will help get us half way over the hurdle, but submitting into fully dedicated and uninterrupted worship when we begin to feel low or depressed about anything, will open the gateway to our soul where I think emotions lay. Offering up praise and reflecting on WHY we are thankful to God can essentially be a cleansing period for the Spirit to defog the mirrors of our mind which cloud up that enormous array of emotions we have programed inside us. That's why it's so easy to feel "happy/sad" or "sad/angry" etc. Focusing on the goodness of God allows the Spirit time to (metaphorically speaking) "Windex" our souls 😂 and create a fresh slate on which to say "ok... I feel better."

Trust me friends... emotions, feelings.. they sometimes suck when all you want to do is be happy in the Lord but feel like you're falling short. The good news is, we are made in God's image and, much like Jesus when He walked the earth, experience certain feelings not far off from our great Creator. Any emotion that tries to steer us from the path of glorifying the Lord is merely a stifling of the enemy and ain't nobody got time for that!

So if you find yourself here today struggling with emotions or a little of the Blessed But Still Stressed mind space...you know what to do...

Let's pray about it...

B.B.S.S.