We had to take a 3-hour drive yesterday for a bittersweet event. A loved one was laid to rest, but we got to see others we hadn’t seen in ages. I drove straight without even a bathroom break. A message popped up on my car’s dashboard, ‘Would you like to stop for a coffee break?’ I giggled and told my beloved RAV4, “No baby.” I guess even my car was tired or bored. Truthfully, by 4 PM I wanted to lay down. I had only gotten about 3 hours sleep the previous night.
I checked into my hotel, and I couldn’t wait to rest. What is it about these hotel beds? Where do they buy their mattresses? I stayed at a 3-star hotel but even then, the bed was like being wrapped into your favorite warm blanket. It felt so good! My son had ditched me to hang with his cousins, so I had 2 queen beds all to myself. And then there was the ‘quiet’. No video games, no TV…just silence. I woke up this morning with a smile—It felt amazing. It doesn’t take much to make happy. I tend to enjoy the simple things in life—like a great night’s sleep after a tiring day. Like me, maybe you love your ‘happy place’, whatever and wherever that is for you. These ‘happy places’ takes the sting out life. However, life isn’t always like this. Sometimes when happiness evades us, we have to ‘live by faith’. When feelings fail, we hold onto faith.
Borrowing from one writer, ‘Trust God’s word and His power more than you trust your own feelings and experiences. Remember, your rock is Christ, and it is the sea that ebbs and flows with the tides — not Him’ [ Samuel Rutherford]. When my feelings don’t align with God’s truth and His promises, I choose to redirect my thoughts. I fight hard to ‘hold captive’ those thoughts that take me to dark places. It’s a journey for sure—one of falling, getting back up, and having those hard conversations with me. My emotions and feelings can sway with the ups and downs of life, but the fact of God’s presence cannot be refuted. He is the One who stays. The One who ‘finds us’ when we feel the most lost. The reality of His love remains etched on the pages of our lives and cannot be denied. Our feelings do nothing to change that fact. ‘When I cannot feel the faith of assurance, I live by the fact of God’s faithfulness’ [ Matthew Henry].
For we walk by faith, not by sight [living our lives in a manner consistent with our confident belief in God’s promises]—
2 Corinthians 5:7 [AMP]
Restored Hearts 