Trusting God When Emotions Are Intense
Adapted from Managing Your Emotions
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.
If we paraphrased today’s scripture passage in contemporary language, it might sound something like this: “God, I’m hurting so bad. I’m desperate for You. Have You forgotten me?
How long will You wait before You do something for me? How much longer will my enemies seem to win? Look at what I’m going through. Help me, so my enemies won’t overcome me and rejoice in my suffering. God, I trust in Your love, which never fails. I will rejoice and have a good attitude because of Your salvation and Your promises of love and mercy. I praise You, Lord, because You’ve been good to me. You are good all the time—even when I’m discouraged. I trust You and praise You in the midst of my troubles.”
This psalm describes the principle we’re focusing on in this devotional. We’re learning that we don’t have to deny that our emotions exist. They can be intense, but we don’t have to let them control us. We can feel our feelings, but we don’t have to follow them. We can’t always change the way we feel, but we can choose what we do in every situation.
Prayer of the Day: Help me, Lord, to pay attention to the way I feel and to make good choices as I deal with my emotions.
