Our devotional today gets right into the middle of our feelings. Not in a hurtful or exciting way, but to help us expose how they directly impact our lives with the Lord. See, feelings are such a grey-area gateway between our spiritual lives and physical lives, and therein tend to provide confusing signals and perceptions to the world around us (our horizontal experiences) and the leading of the Lord Himself (our vertical experiences).
One of the clearest descriptions for 'feelings', is; "an emotional state or reaction" (as in, 'a kindly feeling toward the boy')... something of a susceptibility to impression (as in, 'that remark hurt her feelings'). Essentially, our feelings help to express the attitude of our spirit, as well as influence our spirit, too. Since we are sensual beings, we can be so easily influenced by 'things that we see' or 'things that we experience' (a hotdog at the ball game, a great ballet, a glorious sunset), but we know that these are temporal things (from the outside).
There are many horrible things that can also influence our feelings, and hence our spirit, such as; a job lose, witnessing a crime, or even just disappointment. The bible reads; “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Ephesians 6:16 KJV), which is to say that our Lord can and will lead us through the myriad of "feelings influencing" events we face in our day. He can and will provide the strength and stamina to fight off these 'darts' that shoot through our lives; causing us to doubt, to falter, and even to get off of His path of righteousness.
We can accomplish this by letting these fears and feelings be exposed, let them 'come to light' and be not afraid of the vulnerability and/or even pending condemnation (another fear). He is 'faithful and just to forgive us of our sins'. Once you are able and willing to let the fear that these feelings cause for you to be exposed, the Lord will show you that you are no longer held hostage (chains drop away) and now have that little bit more freedom to love Him, to worship Him, but even better... be a witness and testimony for Him. Expose your feelings, and enjoy His love. Isaiah 12:2 (KJV) reads; “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.”