Pushing

After Christmas, a friend placed a very uplifting post on Facebook. Yes, she celebrated Christmas with children and grandchildren, but the previous year also held great loss for her family:

Sometimes I just have to push past the feelings and make the choice and it all works out in time

It is a choice – something I’ve tried very hard to get across for years now – that we make daily. How do we face life?

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15 KJV)

Joshua did not threaten to kill every Israelite that chose not to serve the LORD. He did not tell them horrible things would happen to them. He did make his choice known.

There are times when it is necessary to “push past the feelings”, though. Not just feelings of loss and make the choice to rejoice, as my friend did, we also have to push past feelings of bitterness to find life’s sweetness. We have to push past feelings of anger or hurt and choose forgiveness. We have to push past feelings of fear and choose trust.

We have to do all of this pushing ourselves not just with our relationships with fellow man, but with God. We have to push past our own feelings for temptations to place our lives in God’s hands.

Too often we hold on to feelings of anger or hate and withhold our forgiveness of others. We judge their hurtfulness to be greater than we can bear. We are wrong.

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15 KJV)

We all need God’s forgiveness, for how we treat our fellowman is how we treat God:

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matthew 25:40 KJV)

We need to push against feelings that tend to separate us from God and keep us from providing fruit of the spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23 KJV)

The previous verses in Galatians 5 give a much longer list for the works of the flesh. Some of them will provide worldly gain, but will certainly quench the spirit.

Daily – we must realize that this isn’t a once in a lifetime event as salvation is. Daily we make decisions about what fruit we provide. Jesus didn’t hold that information back from anyone:

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23 KJV)

Tomorrow I’ll look at the next verse.