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           When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way. In the path where I walk people have hidden a snare for me. (Psalm 142:3)

            This is part of a psalm written by David…David, a man after God’s own heart. That David. It’s a prayer that (in English at least) begins “When my spirit grows faint within me…” Not if, but when. Have you noticed what your emotions do when you’re not supervising them? 

            The least likely thing for them to do is get busy cheering you on to do good - unless doing that good is going to produce some immediate gratification. Instead, they wander off into swamps of despair, frightening forests, dangerous mountain trails, deserts of laziness, and battlefields of anger, and dungeons of envy. When David was in the cave hiding from Saul, it’s perfectly reasonable that he should have felt some fear, but I have to wonder if sitting there… and sitting there… and sitting there didn’t result in the spirit growing faint.

            But David points out the thing we tend not to notice. No matter how he felt, God watched over David’s way, just as He watches over our ways. Notice what David did? He applied truth. God watched over his way when his spirit felt week. When our emotions wander off, we need to report them to God, and rehearse the truth about God in the face of the lies our emotions are telling. Perhaps we need to go  after them, too,  taking them by the ear and telling them not just to do something productive or helpful, but what to do that is productive and helpful. Studies have shown that helping someone is an excellent way to get over negative emotional states.

            

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