ALL That is Within Me

Bless  the  Lord , O my soul; And all that is within me,  bless  His holy name! (Psalms 103:1 NKJV)

What a beautiful thought... praising God with ALL that is within me.  Well... as long as we are talking about all the generosity and love and forgivness and kindness and peacefullness.  But unfortunately, that is not ALL that is within me.  There is also greed and jealousy and anger and a lot of other ugly stuff too.  Do we praise God with that stuff too?  And if so, how?

Do we just refuse to acknowledge our negative feelings?  Do we pretend that we don't have them?  Would that honor God?  I think most psychologists would tell us that refusing to acknowledge our feelings would be emotionally unhealthy.  It is the kind of thing that leads to addictions as we search for ways to make ourselves feel better.

I think we CAN use these negative feelings to praise God by acknowledging them and working through them in a faithful way.  We can admit that our greed makes us not want to give a little extra when a need arises, but when we do it anyway, we bless God.  When we are angry because someone has hurt us, we honor God by praying for that person instead of retaliating.  We don't cover up the feelings, but acknowledge them and act faithfully in spite of them.

In return, God honors us.  We find forgiveness a little easier when we pray for those who have hurt us.  We find generosity a little easier when we find that giving doesn't really leave us with less for ourselves.

God knows us inside and out.  He knows what we are really feeling, so we can't really cover up our feelings anyway.  Bless God with ALL that is within you by taking all that ugly stuff and laying it before him.  He can work through that too.

Father,
Help me to integrate my selfishness with my generosity; my anger with my love; my spite with my kindness.  Let me come to you as a whole person and allow you to work within me and all that is me. Amen.

Joys:  a sleepover with Cecelia; U-verse back up and working (sure miss my technology when it's gone!); a warm home