Hi ~

Yesterday I talked about separating our emotions from the lies that might be connected with our emotions. Today I’m giving an example that I hope will help you see what I’m talking about.

You’ve probably heard someone say, “I know that’s true, but it just doesn’t feel true.” They’re expressing the disconnect between their intellect and their experience.

Let’s say I have the house temperature set at 55 degrees Fahrenheit, with the cold air blasting out of the central air vents.

You come to me complaining that the house is hot.

“No, look,” I say. “It’s not hot; it’s actually cold. It’s set at 55. I have to wear a jacket in here, see?”

You say, “Ok, I see that. The room feels like it’s blazing, but I see that it’s really not. It’s really cold.”

I think almost everyone I know would rather base their lives on what’s actually true rather than simply what they feel.

But there can be a root problem with lining up the feelings with the truth that they intellectually know.

I grew up with, “Don’t trust your feelings, don’t base your life on your feelings, live rationally, live from what you know (intellectually) is true, act like you believe it, and your feelings will follow.”

So you say, “I’ll try very hard to believe that it’s really cold in this room, even though I feel hot.”

Going on intellectual facts when the feelings aren’t in alignment has been called faith, but it can feel like pretending.

So you lie on the couch with your limbs spread wide telling yourself, “It’s really cold in here. It’s really cold in here.”

Your checks are flushed, but you’re telling yourself to ignore those feelings of “hotness” and simply intellectually believe the truth of “coldness” that I showed you.

In one of the most beautiful prayers of the Bible, Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:16-19,

that according to the riches of his glory

[God] may grant you to be strengthened with power

through his Spirit in your inner being,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—

that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

may have strength to comprehend with all the saints

what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

“It’s cold, it’s cold, it’s cold,” you murmur over and over. And you are burning up.

This isn’t what Paul was talking about. Not at all.

So what was he talking about?

I’ll tell more about it tomorrow.

With you for truth and feelings to be in alignment,

Rebecca

Untwisting Scriptures at heresthejoy.com

See my Untwisting Scriptures series

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