Managing Your Emotions (1)

IF you are an emotional person, you will never satisfy God, because instead of the Holy Spirit directing you, your emotions will be directing you. When you don’t please God, you cannot achieve God’s plan and purpose for your life. In Colossians 3:15-17, the Bible says “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” I believe what this scripture is telling us is how to manage our emotions based on the word of God. In Verse 17, the Bible instructs that we should always do things in the name of the Lord Jesus and not by emotions. If you always follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, you will give thanks in the end.

One basic truth you should realise is that whatever problem you might be going through in life, there is a solution for it and the solution is in the word of God. We all have emotions and we cannot separate ourselves from them but we need to learn to manage them. We can define emotion as “to excite and to move out”. Do not allow circumstances to determine your actions. Stay with your earlier decisions and only review them if utterly necessary. For example, don’t go on a shopping spree, buying things you did not plan for, simply because you observed a price slash, or you might end up finding it difficult to meet up with your other financial obligations. You should also realise that part of the devil’s plan for your life is that you should follow your emotions at all times so that you will not be able to please God. The Lord does not want you to be ruled by your emotions but by wisdom. He expects you to apply His wisdom in all that you do.

What is wisdom? Wisdom is admitting that you don’t know everything. Wisdom is telling your emotions to wait while you think about a particular situation before you take a decision. A sister, who has been waiting for a long time for a husband, will be succumbing to her emotions if she gets carried away by the good behaviour of the first brother to propose to her. It will be unwise for such a sister to rush into marriage without first consulting God to find out if the brother is meant for her or not. This will save her from the anguish of an unhappy marriage.

You should always remember this statement: Emotions will always tell you to hurry, but wisdom will tell you to wait. Wisdom will always ask you, why are you doing this? It will ask you what you stand to gain from your actions. It will ask you, “If you do it what will happen?” It will tell you, “When you do it, this is how it will look?” You need to pray for emotional maturity so that you can be able to manage your emotions properly.

God created man with free will, but He sets before him right and wrong, and expects him to make a decision. A good example is that of Adam and Eve. God could have removed the tree of knowledge of good and evil from the Garden of Eden, but He chose not to, so that He could test the obedience of man. God has given every believer the desire to do “what is right”. He also gave us the spirit of self-control and this can be used positively or negatively. It pays you to use it positively so that you can manage your emotions. Self-control is freedom; it is not bondage. It only means that you are operating in wisdom. It means that you are free to obey God. It means that you are free to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. You are free to do what you know is wise.