I love watching how God works. Yesterday evening Kathy and I got to be part of a celebration for a man who is celebrating 10 years of sobriety. His wife had arranged for one other couple and us to join them in this celebration. It really was nice. When the waitress asked if it was someone’s birthday, one gentleman said, “well, it’s the birthday of this guy’s 10 years of sobriety.” The waitress said that this was a better celebration than any birthday and we all agreed. At the end of the dinner she brought a very large piece of cake with 6 forks. She said the house wants to celebrate with you. It was a great evening!

This morning I was awakened early and I knew it was one of those I needed to just get up and see what God was wanting to say. I’m giving the devotion for our Celebrate Recovery leadership meeting following the church services and I’m also doing the training. These were on my mind but they were already laid out so I wasn’t sure what was “on God’s mind”. As I began to journal God seemed to bring out so much about the emotions of man. I’ve written about how I’ve hated man’s emotions having lived through those of my dad. God was asking me to see these emotions as man’s choices. Every emotion of man is housed in God’s immensity. God being perfect manages these emotions “perfectly”. Man, because of sin, is vulnerable to them. In our walk with God, He wants us to mature more and more into His likeness which the fruits of the Spirit describe: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, Galatians 5:22-23. We exemplify these best when our emotions are reflecting God’s influence in our lives. We damage these fruits when our emotions only reflect man’s choices.

Emotions allow us to express these fruits as God does as we mature more and more in our walk with Him. Letting go of my old beliefs about emotions is allowing me to mature. This step of letting go is one God has wanted me to take as He walked me through the Psalms this present season. My journey continues.