Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:11] Hey friends, welcome back to another weekday podcast. Thanks for being with us. As you get ready for Christmas, I want to encourage you to go buy Christmasand sugarhill.com learn all things about Christmas, especially Christmas Eve and then the Sunday after Christmas. Join us online only that Sunday and and then January. We can't wait to kick off the brand new year with this theme around bridges. Well, today as we dive into the podcast, one of the things I want to talk about is feelings. And the reason why I want to talk about them is because feelings are terrible. Historians.
[00:00:40] What I mean by that is they're sort of like that friend who only remembers the worst parts of every vacation. You went to the beach. It was beautiful. You made incredible memories. The sunset was stunning. But when you ask your friend about it six months later, oh, all they remember is that sunburn, the overpriced hotel, and the restaurant that got their order wrong. They will swear that the whole trip was a disaster. And if you try to remind them about the good parts, they'll say, yeah, but remember when we had to wait an hour for a table? That's what feelings do. They forget the hundred times that God showed up and they obsess over the one time he didn't show up the way they wanted. Well, what's interesting about the story of Mary in the Gospel of Luke, chapter one is her memory becomes her medicine.
[00:01:24] In other words, Mary sings her song in Luke 1 and she does something that I think is really brilliant. She remembers out loud. Here's what she says. For the mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name, and his mercy is upon generation after generation towards those who fear him. Mary is not relying on her feelings to carry her. She is anchoring herself in what God has already proven to be true. She's saying, I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow. And that's enough.
[00:01:56] Her feelings could have convinced her that God had forgotten her.
[00:02:00] That's the situation that seemed impossible, that could make her think that she's alone. But instead, she tells her heart the truth. That God's mercy has been faithful for generations. That he was faithful to Abraham, he was faithful to Moses, he was faithful to David, and he's faithful to her right now.
[00:02:19] And that's what's interesting about emotions, is often they lose track of the truth.
[00:02:24] But the principle is joy grows when we remind our hearts of what our feelings forgot. Now, we live in a culture that treats feelings like facts. You hear things like follow your heart. But anyone who's lived longer than a week knows that our hearts can be wildly unreliable narrators. Our hearts will tell us that God's forgotten us when he's actually been carrying us the whole time. Our hearts will tell us that we're alone when we're surrounded by people who love us. Our hearts will tell us that. That it's hopeless when breakthrough is closer than we think. So we have to practice. And what I mean by that is practice what Mary practiced. Intentional remembering.
[00:03:01] So here's something practical today. Start a list on your phone. Title it, don't forget.
[00:03:07] Don't forget. Write down the times that God showed up, prayers that he's answered, moments that you thought you were done and he's proved you weren't. Then when fear shows up and your feelings start rewriting history, pull up that list and read it out loud. Just the facts. Just truth. Just evidence. Because when feelings start lying to you. Memory becomes the medicine for a weary soul. And joy grows when we remind our hearts of what our feelings for God. It is the memory that is a medicine for your soul. Have a great day. We'll see you back here soon, Sam.
