Satan uses a woman’s emotions to disconnect her from gratitude. The focus becomes the feeling all the while forgetting God’s promises. Some days what we know to be true struggles against the weight of the world threatening to crush us. Satan sneaks in with an emotional bomb that blows a separation so deep and wide in our understanding of God’s true character that all we can see becomes the growing canyon, a seemingly bottomless pit, as our awareness of God fades into the sunset.
But God made us emotional creatures, right? Aren’t we supposed to be the ones who handle feelings more than one range of experience at a time? The complex creatures! Hermione Granger even declared it so in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when explaining to Harry and Ron another female character’s emotional plight. She summarized for the boys the character’s simultaneous plethora of confusion, sadness, guilt, worry, pain, and fear. When met by their stunned gazes, her wisdom simply concluded, “Just because you’ve got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn’t mean we all have!”
Women understand juggling multiple emotions while walking the tightrope stretching whatever canyon de jour threatens to open and swallow us whole - usually there may be a loved one or two clinging despondently to our back. But what happens when Satan throws something in the mix so overwhelming that the chasm splits wide, and we retreat to the sideline, and the real battle begins. The battle between what we KNOW to be true and what we FEEL.
Genesis 3:13
So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?”
And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
-Blame the snake
Genesis 16:2
Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave perhaps through her I can build a family.
-Blame God for not answering prayers in a timely manner
-Come up with own solution to the problem
Genesis 16:5
Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put my slave girl in your arms and when she saw she was pregnant, I became contemptible to her. May the Lord judge between me and you.”
-Get extremely angry at the one we perceive has wronged us and lash out
-Expect God to repair our mistakes, even though it was our idea in the first place
Genesis 18: 11-12
Sarah had passed the age of childbearing so she laughed to herself, “After I am worn out and my Lord is old will I have delight?”
-Doubt God’s promises and His desire to reward those who earnestly seek Him
Genesis 27: 13
His mother (Rebekah) said to him (Jacob) “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and go get them for me.
Three clear stories of women making their own plans based on their overwhelming emotions to make things happen like they FEEL they should be happening rather than waiting on the way God wants them to happen. I’m not even close to being out of Genesis! The examples could keep on rolling.
Why so many examples of women in the Bible who move heaven and earth to make things happen for their families and do so much for the ones that they love yet cry out gut wrenching, emotional prayers when faced with pain and heartache not unlike what we face right here, right now? However, one example stands in very sharp contrast:
Luke 1:38
“I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary, “May it be done to me according to your word.”
Mary walked a lonely path. Pain and heartache journeyed with her. I imagine the moments emotions threatened to overtake her and open the chasm between what she knew to be true of God and what she felt in that temporary moment. An unplanned pregnancy today brings shock. Imagine the magnitude of what it meant to Mary. Yet she chose what she KNEW of God not the fear she FELT. She did not allow her emotions to disconnect her from gratitude. Praise God she confessed her knowledge of God and this ruled her feelings and her feelings did not overwhelm her knowledge of her loving Son.
As I begin my Advent journey this year, I am committed to reclaiming practical gratitude. From the moment my eyes open every day, I want to reclaim even the smallest things. The sun rose. Breath flows in my lungs. If my body aches, gratitude for age, and a body well used (I am working on this one). I'm learning a new appreciation for His wisdom and His timing and allowing my knowledge of Him to never be overruled by my emotions. Because He's a big picture God, and He's not ever overwhelmed by any of my big emotions. And He knows me and loves me well including...
Gratitude for grandcats and that even though I tried to give them away….He knew I needed them.
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