Proverbs 29:11

"A fool vents all [their] feelings, But a wise [person] holds them back."

Deeeep. Deeeeeeep for a generation raised on the "I'm-here-if-you-need-to-talk/Let-it-out!-Vent-your-feelings" "you'll rot if you keep it inside..." type of pop-psycholoty stuff...

Wow.

So... if a fool vents all of their feelings, how does a wise person deal with them? Feelings are strong, and our training in Americana-pop has deepened their ruts in our souls. What do you do with feelings outside of TALK about them?

and as for VENTING... it is more than talking. It is also acting out and being controlled by feelings that should otherwise be controlled...

HOLD BACK YOUR FEELINGS... That's strange advise! Listen to that again: "Hold back your feelings". Wow.
But listen, while they're held, LOOK at them. Where do they come from? Slow it down. Ponder it. Ponder the processes of them... Ponder What they are and why they affect you so... Slow it down. Take days.

Take hours in prayer and searching the Scriptures for resonance... you know about resonance, right? It's when a passage of scripture-a story about God and His Ones-resonates with you on some deep level, and you have to step back and think and pray and allow yourself to feel and journey deep into your mind and soul and spirit to get your whole self up to par on what your deep innards are doing with all that...

God wants us open, listening, flowing in His Stuff, so that we can speak and listen to Him, communing in him with each other...

Holding back means giving TIME to our feelings and inner rumblings. Giving time and space to our inner life, so that our mind catches up to the mysteries of the things of God. ...so that our heart can catch up to the woundings and healings of the Cross...

Much of what I'm talking about here is taking life to the foot of the Cross and sitting in deep meditation with Jesus, there, getting everything under the Cross... Do you understand "getting everything under the cross"? It is about consecrating our lives... surrendering our desires and plans... hearing the voice of God for ourselves... becoming fit with love to serve and speak and touch and feel in the world... ...fit with love to operate in the Spirit in the world, free from the world.

Yet many of us... no. All of us... tend to let feelings dump out without giving them the time we could. not ought. COULD. "Ought" is the language of condemnation. This isn't requirement. The cross pays for all our faults and shortcomings. "Could". That's the language of PROMISE! Forget now about all the times you have dumped your inner process for "spillage". Think about how much deeper with God you'll go this month! Today! As you put hands around your feelings and cup them up to your face to look into them...

"Oh, that's sadness. Why am I sad, Lord?" What is this sadness? Give it a month in the presence of God, listening in the Word and searching in the spirit. Times with the Body will confirm the voice and leading of God, and you'll emerge comforted and equipped.

"Oh, that's anger. What is this anger, Lord?"... Ephesians has, "Be angry, and sin not" in it, so let the anger burn close to your face... look into it, look away from it and see what it illuminates. So often anger, if you look into it, is like a campfire, rendering your sight ineffective. You have to put your back to it and see what is illuminated by it. Its like that. Anger shows us what must change, and prayer and consecration of our life will make us fit with love and vision to operate for change of those things...

Don't dump out your feelings. Dumping can be talk (most often), but it can also be DECISION MAKING--the changing of aspects and attitudes in life that were meant to bring you into this discipline of the deeper aspects of life. In fact, these decisions, large and small, made by feelings, unprocessed, unpondered, constitute LOSS of peace, rest, power... loss of the LIFE of the cross.

Get a handle on your feeligns. Don't just cork them, but take them to the foot of the cross and ponder them there, with Jesus, in prayer, meditation, listening to the Word, who is Jesus, Himself.

blessings. deepest blessings flowing from the cross of Jesus, today.