How can we be doing the will of God when we are controlled by the will of men?

 

How can we be doing the will of God when we are controlled by the will of men?

 

What is God’s will for us? To bring about eternal salvation.

 

What is man’s will for us? To bring about some sort of gain, money, riches, leisure, shared misery, guilt, pain, suffering, agony.

 

The question is asked, what is in it for me and how can by my association with you bring me greater glory?

 

Man’s will – to bring about his greater glory.

 

God’s will – to bring about our eternal salvation so that we can once again be reunited with him in his hands of love, happiness, peace and joy.

 

Most often we don’t even state that we feel a certain way, we just blurt out the feeling, I’m angry, I am mad, I love you, you’ve made me so upset, I am tired, exhausted and then we expect others to understand our stated feelings and share them with us. Isn’t that strange? They are our feelings but we want others to experience that same emotion.

 

By verbally stating our feelings, we are attempting to lighten or strengthen our feeling by an association to another party. What a concept. By doing this, we attempt to 1. Distance ourselves from the feeling 2. Distribute the load of that feeling 3. Unload that feeling 4. Manipulate others. Our feelings, then become OUR, yours and mine feelings, no longer my feelings. When we rely on our own strength, attempt to control our own life and not put our faith in Jesus, we use these emotions as a barometer as to how well our life is going. Are we happy, sad, tired, joyful, annoyed, bored, and any one of a thousand other emotions or feelings. How else would we gauge the effect of our life, than by attempting to evaluate our emotions, feelings, on a minute to minute basis to see if we are happy or not, loved or not, content or not, satisfied or not.

 

There are a lot of problems with this failed logic.

 

First of all, we can’t trust our feelings. We can’t really trust our own feelings, how could we? Reliance upon our own evaluation of feelings is futile; it will only cause a person to go crazy because none of us are capable of discerning our own feelings, characterizing them, cataloging them, evaluating them in a timely manner.

 

Secondly, we have not learned to disassociate others or separate other or outside influences – they all become part of the feeling. Every stimuli we take in, in life creates an emotion within us, which one do we listen to, trust, which takes a higher priority, and why? None of us really knows why we feel the way we do, we just feel that way. Some might attempt to link it to past experiences but that too is false. We could never experience the same thing exactly the same, never! Nothing is the same, it may appear the same, but it is impossible for it to be the same.

 

Third – our feelings change over time. We don’t feel the same way about love, anger, pain, etc. today as when we were 20 or 10. Over time our attitude about things change as do our feelings associated with those attitudes. Also, our needs, wants and desires also change thus causing a change in our perception or feelings associated with these needs, wants and desires. We are constantly changing; we are dynamic rather than static. As we evolve, change, we expect others to change with us or get out of the way.

 

Fourth – we cannot properly express or intelligently express our true feelings. Usually we have some ulterior motive behind our display of emotions; usually that motive is to control, manipulate, and deceive or to set a priority. We express emotions to bring the focus of attention back to ourselves, see me, hear me, watch me; it is a cry for attention. How many of us truly understand our feelings and express them without any attempt to control the environment we find ourselves in at that moment? How many of us could even begin to differentiate our emotions, feelings, and our environment in which we find ourselves in. Not many!

 

Now that we know that the statement of a feeling is an emotional outcry of control, what does Heavenly Father tell us?

 

Have faith, trust in him, be patient, kind, loving, understanding, believe, obey, focus on him rather than ourselves, be temperate, persevere, be loyal, be content, don’t worry.

 

Money and things are no substitute for the true and sincere happiness that comes from living and serving the Lord.

 

Man alone cannot bring man happiness. 

 

Only our Heavenly Father has the plan for eternal salvation and happiness.

 

When he makes promises and covenants, he keeps them, we can trust in his word and his word is Jesus.

 

John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word (Jesus) and the Word was with God. He was with God at the beginning. Through him all things were made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of man.

 

Do we trust Jesus?

 

Or do we trust our fellow man even those who profess to follow Jesus?

 

I choose the word – Jesus. He will never let me down. Only he has the right and responsibility to judge me, he tells us not to judge other men or be judged by other men. Matthew 7:1 – Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured against you. When we attempt to control a situation by use of emotions and feelings aren’t we judging others to be of less worth than ourselves? Aren’t we in essence saying my emotions and feelings are of more worth than yours? So pay attention to me and make me comfortable. We don’t even say please. When we focus on loving and serving others we begin to take the focus away from ourselves and think of the rights and feelings of others. In Matthew 7:2-5 – we are called to take the log out of our eye before we attempt to take the speck of sawdust out of our brother’s eye. Don’t focus on yourself, focus on others. By focusing on others, we take the attention, spotlight away from us. Our feelings and emotions take on less meaning, value, because we are called through the voice of the Holy Spirit to love and serve others.

 

When we do this, our agenda becomes irrelevant, their agenda becomes relevant. Our needs, wants and desires come behind theirs.

 

We become servants to our fellow man, Heavenly Father promises us Eternal Life and happiness, if we obey his guidance to love and serve. Joy – Deuteronomy 16:15 – he states our joy will be complete. Psalms 4:7 – He fills our hearts with greater joy. Proverbs 17:70 – There is deceit in the hearts of those who plot evil but joy for those who promote peace. Isaiah 35:10 – They will enter Zion with singing, everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Big Promise John 15:9-12 – As the Father has loved me so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy can be complete. My command is this, that you love each other as I have loved you. 2 Corinthians 8:2 – Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. Philippians 2:2 – Then make my joy complete by bring like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. James 1:2 – Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Heavenly Father promises us joy if we follow his commandments. # 9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. #10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, house, land, servant, donkey, ox or anything that belongs to your neighbor.