Summary: <br> Chasing our feelings can get us in trouble.<br> If we are waiting to “feel like” doing something before taking action, odds are we’ll be waiting a heck of a long time. My house would be a wreck and my work would be left undone because honestly I don’t really “feel like” doing it.<br> Feelings often lead us to delayed necessary action and impulsive bad decisions.<br> If I check in with my feelings, my feelings tell me I would like an Eggo waffle covered in JIF peanut butter and Aunt Jemima’s syrup this morning. My feelings also tell me binge watching Netflix in my ‘giving up on life’ pants would be delightful on this rainy Thursday.<br> You know what this tells me … my feelings often can’t be trusted … and neither can yours.<br> Instead of chasing feelings, we can be led by the spirit.<br> Spirit of God, lead me. Direct me Lord. My desire is to follow you Father.<br> Holly Furtick of Elevation Church said something very simple that has stuck with me this week. She said “you hear from God in church because you EXPECTED to hear from him there.” What if we woke up expecting to hear from God? The problem isn’t that God isn’t speaking, the problem is we’re not listening. We think we can only hear from God on Sundays at Church and well, we’ve all been missing church the past 2 months!<br> I wake up every morning expecting to hear from God. I’m 100% reliant upon him. He has 1 hour to talk to me and tell me what he wants to say in this devotional, then I hit record. My expectation opens the flow of his spirit and I hear him. Sometimes I hear him faster than I can type.<br> But you know what’s funny, the entire time I feel the guidance of his spirit, my feelings are going wild. My feelings are in an uproar that I’m up this early. That’s right ya’ll, I don’t feel like doing this … not at all! I would rather sleep. I would rather not get dressed. It’s ridiculous that I have a bra on at 6 am every morning!<br> But one simple shift in my life changed my trajectory. I decided I wouldn’t chase my feelings and I would ask his spirit to lead me. And wherever he leads me, I won’t dwell on how I feel about it.<br> I’ve found the enemy plays in my feelings. Just yesterday the enemy tempted me with a well earned pity party. Whew ya’ll, I wanted to be pitiful. The tears started and threatened to derail my day. No one would have blamed me under the current circumstances. It’s completely understandable I would feel this way. BUT I DON’T CHASE MY FEELINGS. My feelings lead me to dark corners where the enemy whispers his lies and renders me incapable. Why would I follow him there?<br> The spirit leads me out into the light where I am reminded of my truth and the promises of God.<br> Many ask me how they can hear from God. How can you be certain of where God is guiding you?<br> Well, first stop looking for the 5 year plan. We get wrapped up in how we think it should look and we miss that God has placed one little opportunity right in front of us. When I started all of this God never told me it would become the #1 daily devotional podcast in the world, he just told me to host a conference call the next morning and talk about him to anyone who called in. That’s it, he gave me nothing more. And honestly, he gave me nothing more for YEARS. I just kept hosting a conference call with 20 people on the line.<br> Just as God provided daily bread for the Israelites in the wastelands of the desert, God provides one opportunity, one step, one next right choice at a time for us.<br> When God chose Moses to lead his people out of captivity in Egypt, he didn’t give him the details of the journey. He didn’t tell him about the stick that would turn into a snake. He didn’t tell him how this stick would part the Red Sea...
