I love the scripture in Psa 73:26. The Psalmist says: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Wow, what a powerful statement! 

When the word "flesh" stands in parallelism with blood (the Greek word is sarx), it actually means: "butcher's meat!" So without the strength of the Lord, I am nothing but butchers meat, if I may put it like that! Flesh is opposite to spirit. In John 6:63, Jesus says to his disciples: "The spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." 

Maybe you are going through a season where everything you do seems to be futile. You might be feeling like you just can't get things going. Or maybe you feel that no matter how hard you seem to try, whatever you do isn't helping your situation. 

Don't feel alone! Sometimes it may feel like you are pushing against a" brick wall", but press in, don't give up. This is the time where you need to say: "My flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." What our carnal selves, or our earthly selves, cannot do, God - Who is the strength of my heart - can! “Strength” literally means rock. God is the rock to which you can lean. Here, the word "heart" means “the inner person”. It also refers to the "seat of the will or emotions", or that what the inner person fails to do, God will do on our behalf. 

What an awesome promise, to know that God loves us so much, that God has told us not to worry, that everything is under control, if we will just let God handle it! This means that we need to not only give our stress, our worries and our burdens to God, but also we need to give our inner thought process to God as well. That is how we live by faith and not by our feelings. 

We can't be guided by our feelings alone because we cannot make decisions based on our emotions. An example is: that we don't have to feel "saved" to be "saved". We are saved based on the definition of what this means according to the Bible. We have to bring our feelings into alignment with what we believe, not the other way around. We don't live as Christians by bringing what we believe into alignment with our feelings. Decisions are made, based on what we believe and know to be true of God's promises in the Word, not on how we feel first! 

It may not look like we are going to get the blessing promised, in the greater scheme of our carnal thinking, when we are looking at our circumstances. But as we accept and believe with our spirit in faith, the word of God comes to life, and we see God's promises coming to fruition in our lives. Instead of panicking and making decisions from a place of fear when things aren't going your way, why not hold onto these words of the Psalmist and know that you are safe in the arms of Jesus, no matter how bad the storms of life appear to be? We hold onto God's promises and word, not our circumstances. They are life and God is your portion forever. That word "portion" means "inheritance". God will never leave you nor forsake you; that is a covenant promise direct from God's word, your inheritance is allotted and cannot be taken away, unless you deliberately choose to leave it behind! 

The moral of this story is: Don't settle for being "butcher's meat" or, even worse, minced meat, when you can live an abundant life, by trusting God to come through for you, even when your situation looks impossible to overcome. Trust the Lord and make your decisions on what you believe God has promised you, not what your emotions or feelings "tell you". Our feelings constantly vary and are based on what you can see in 3D and on what our environment or circumstances dictate. Believing is seeing in 4D and then believing regardless of what our situation or circumstances may look like! 

Blessings
Rev. Deborah Bell
Senior Pastor 
Deo Gloria Family Church