Daily Power #171

“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6 NASB)

Even though both men and women have emotions, we process them very differently. Generally speaking, women talk, while men act. Most of the time, when a woman is upset about something, she’ll talk about it. (And talk and talk and talk.) Most guys don’t usually do that. One article I read said that men talk on average about 7,000 words a day, while women say 20,000 words a day—with gusts up to 30,000!

Sometimes when my wife needs to process some difficult emotions, she’ll invite one of her woman friends over to talk (usually for hours). That works well for her, but I have never in my life had a dude call me and say, “Hey Craig, could you come over to my house and sit with me for half a day on my sofa and drink some tea so we can talk?” For most men, talking doesn’t feel like it accomplishes anything. Instead “doing something” does.

The problem most of us face, women as well as men, is that we often allow our emotions to determine our actions. When we let our feelings call the shots, we’re much more likely to cave to temptation. We sin, which only makes us feel worse and gives women more to talk about and men more to do something about.

While being emotion-driven often leads us to do the ungodly thing, being Spirit-led never does. If you truly want to do what’s right, letting your emotions take over will rarely get you the outcome you want.

Feel what you feel, but do what God wants you to do.

Power Lift

Lord, give me the strength to be obedient today no matter how I may feel when things go wrong.