Psalm 94:18-19 English Standard Version
18 When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.
I could have used this verse a few days ago. Emotions were getting the better of me. There is a reason that psychiatry was invented. Emotions can lead you astray of the truth.
My truth for today is that love, agape love at least, is not an emotion. It is a choice. God’s unfailing love is not touched by emotions, is not altered, damaged, hidden nor withheld just because we are feeling bad about ourselves.
God’s consolations are always available but just like a psychiatrist’s appointment we have to show up to get any help. When we stop reading our bibles because of our emotions we do net get the consolations we so desperately need.
A doctor of theology once taught on the slew of despond. A slew is a large troth that carries logs down the mountainside to a river below. Once we get on that log it feels like we are in mortal danger to jump off and we cling to the log as if our lives depend on it. The log is depression and the only danger is clinging to it.
The slew is not moving the log is moving and the water in the slew is moving. The trick is to not jump off the log onto the hillside but to let the log go, enter the troth and let the water wash over you.
Picking up our bibles is the first step in getting off that log. Allowing the word to wash over us slows our descent and allows us to come to grips with where we are in truth.
Those who do not slip are not moving.