There is a message from God to you in your bottle. Your bottle is your heart. Have you taken out the cork and opened your bottle to see what the message says? I have found (especially through counseling defeated believers) that your bottle can be corked with “ought” and “should” (and their counterparts: “ought not” and “shouldn’t”). How can you read the message from God when you are all “bottled up?” Get the cork out! Quit telling yourself what you should and shouldn’t feel?! Emotions are not right or wrong. You have my permission to feel… completely, deeply, with tears, with anger. Here, try this:Write down 3 feelings words right now–the first words that come to mind. Where are you in the moment, be honest. (Don’t cork that thought/emotion, let it come forth on the page.) Now write 3 more words. (Keep doing this until you feel you have emptied your bottle for now.) Do not judge your emotions, only recognize them. You need not necessarily engage them, but be aware that they are there–present in you.I am convinced of two things: 1) God has more for our Christian experience than we are currently experiencing. Like a ship in a bottle, we are in varying degrees trapped from “the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.” 2) We are only trapped because of the cork–unacknowledged emotions that have led to false beliefs)! As Wallace said on the men’s retreat: “The only way out is to be broken down and reassembled on the other side.” The Ps. 56:8 says, “You have taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in a bottle. Are they not in Your book?” God has taken account of your wanderings, but have you?There are two locations to pinpoint on a map when you’re on a voyage: 1) the destination and 2) the starting point. Many know where they want to be, but have never truthfully acknowledged where they are! You have to admit where you are before can leave where you are. I’ll be the first to admit the “voyage” hurts! It’s scary, embarrassing, revealing, painful, unknown, stormy, etc., but it is very real! You need to get the cork out and open your heart completely to God.The self-righteous (those too good to admit weakness) cannot do this, only the sinners: “And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner…she bought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind [Jesus] at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume” (Lk. 7:37-38). This woman knew what to do with her painful past. She had “bottled in up” for years and it had become very costly to her. Are you willing to do what she did–break your bottle and pour it on the feet of Jesus with tears? Your tears become your prayer.

Maybe you’re wanting to set your sails and go with the Spirit, but you find yourself rowing in circles more often than you’d like to admit. Jesus’ conclusion to the self-righteous is this: “…he who is forgiven little, loves little” (v.47b). [NOTE: I’m not talking about only being “released” (forgiven) from sinful behavior, but anything that keeps you “dry docked, tied up, stuck, in shallow waters, etc.”] His conclusion to the sinner is this: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (v.50). [NOTE: I’m not just talking about being saved from eternal hell, but also from your daily hell.]

There is a message in the bottle for you, but only you can open it. Will you?

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