Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

"Then he [Jesus] said to them, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.'"¹

In some way emotions are "energy in motion." When used creatively they can motivate us to achieve wonderful things in life. When repressed they can leave us characteristically bored with life, feeling empty within, and settling for cheap counterfeits.

For instance, when the emotion of love is repressed, more often than not it will express itself in lust and lead to superficial relationships. When anger is repressed it can come out as hostility, rage or passive aggression. When fear is repressed it can cause us to setting ourselves up to fail, or express itself in phobias. Instead of facing the real fear within, we attach it to something outside ourselvesâ€"it feels a whole lot safer to do it this way.

Or take the emotion of wonder. It's the emotion that puts sparkle into life and makes life wonder-full. When wonder is repressed, our life is wonder-empty. It then expresses itself in a "lust" for things; that is, materialism. Instead of loving people and using things we end up unhappily loving things and using people to get more things.

I believe one of the major reasons why we in the Western World are so materialistic and "worship the god of materialism" is because so many of us are emotionally repressed and our lives wonder-empty.

A vital part of a truly wonderful life consists of being in touch with and aware of our entire range of God-given emotions; that, in turn, express themselves in wholesome, loving relationships with our own self, others, and ultimately with God.

Jesus said it well when he said, "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And as Henry Van Dyke said, "What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever."

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to get in touch with and be aware of all my God-given emotions and use them as You intended, so that my life will be truly wonder-full and so I will not be caught up in the emptiness of materialismâ€"and so that my life will be a clear channel through whom Your love can freely flow to others. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus's name, amen."

1. Luke 12:15 (NIV).

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