Letting God get the best of our emotions

The Emotions and The Will

Read Psalm 42; Matthew 21:12-16; Gal. 2:11-21

Don’t you wish your emotions were a little more under control? The psalmist in Psalm 42 seems to have his act together and all under composure.

The writer didn’t give up on God when bad times came. He was emotionally “cast down” in his soul, but not in his relationship with God. His response was “Yet shall I praise Him.” (Ps. 42: 5, 11; 43:5). He knew that “the Lord will command His lovingkindness” (42:8). We should “pant” after God like deer pant after the water in times of distress.

I say should because many times our emotional and hardships do not drive us to yearn and thirst for God.  Avery Willis in MasterLife Book 2 talks about how to take “action” over your emotions. Granted, trying to control your emotions needs to first presume that you are in a rationale state of mind to begin with! Often times, our emotions run roughshod over our mind and even our will.

The solution? Willis lists six actions steps to deal with the emotions

Acknowledge the emotion…Don’t deny or excuse it

Confess the sin...and then consider why you have that emotion

Thank God that He will help you master your emotions and keep it from becoming sin.

Identify the biblical response to the emotion…If anger, don’t let the sun go down on it; if hatred, love your enemies, etc.

Obey the Holy Spirit’s prompting, which is almost always in contrast to the world’s response or our human reaction.

Nurture the appropriate fruit of the Spirit (see Gal.5:22-23)

 When we read about Jesus casting out the money changers from the temple (Matt. 21:12-16) or when Paul confronted Peter for his hypocrisy (Gal. 2:11-21), we may at first instinctively think that their emotions got the best of them. However, God does not want us to be emotionless Vulcans like Mr. Spock from Star Trek. God gave us emotions but he wants us to control them and not have them control us.

We will see tomorrow some verses about how the will, that is, God's Will working out in our lives, is the decision maker for our mind, emotions and the battle in our souls.