ISAIAH 49:14-16 – But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.”
THEME OF THE DAY. CONQUERED BY TRUTH. As Christians, we acknowledge the raging spiritual war we face daily. There are strong enemies of our souls who constantly attack us, seeking to destroy and devour us. They are the devil, the world and our flesh. When it comes to their tactics, the devil does most of his evil against us by accusations and temptations to doubt God and His Word. As for the world, its primary mode of attack is the allurements of distractions. It seeks by its pleasures and busyness to draw us away from the things of the Lord. With our flesh, we are constantly feeling its sinful pull to fulfill God-forbidden passions, to seek comfort and ease robbing us of self-discipline, and the allowance of spiritual neglect creating apathy. But there is another area our fallen flesh does battle against us in our walks with the Lord. It is revealed in today’s scripture – the war of feelings versus truth.
The people of the Lord, illustrated by “Zion”, are languishing in the terror of feeling abandoned by their God. Notice the forceful and desperate pleas from their hearts – “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” Have you ever felt that way? Has the weakness of our frames, the remaining sin within us, and our always unreliable emotions caused us to cry out like these people of God? No honest child of God would deny those “dark times” when strong feelings of God’s distance from us and disinterest in us grip us and we feel forsaken and forgotten by God. Those painful times will come upon all believers. Some more intense than others, but all will know those seasons.
So, how do we not give into these wrong feelings of forsakenness and forgetfulness by our God? The Lord, Himself, has given us the conquering power also in today’s scripture. Go back and look how God deals with his feelings-based children. He reinforces them with His truth; truth that says, “I cannot forsake or forget you. You are my children. And to assure you even more, I have permanently engraved you in the palms of My hands and that “ink” is permanent; never scrubbed off or erased.”
Friends, feelings of God forsaking and forgetting us are defeated, or conquered by God’s unfailing and unchanging truth. Yes, this is a hard battle for our feelings are strong, but by constantly “talking our feelings down by truth”, they will submit. Not without a fight, but they will. We can, through discipline and practice, make our feelings come under the control of truth. So, the next time feelings seek to be the barometer of our spiritual lives and fellowship with God, attack them with the conquering power of God’s truth. And remember, truth has never lost a single battle when it does battle against the devil, the world, the flesh, and our feelings.
PRAYER: “Father, I so praise You for the power of Your truth to override, even control, my wavering emotions.”
QUOTE: “Never trust your feelings when it comes to spiritual discernment and direction. They betray. Truth won’t.”