How can I best handle my emotions? - Emotions - TouchPoints

Proverbs 4:23Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Ezekiel 36:26“I [the Lord] will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.”

What we think about doesn’t just come from our minds; it also comes from our hearts. The Bible says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). It is the center of the battle between the sinful nature and the new nature in Christ. It is also the center of our emotions. In other words, our emotions are constantly influenced and tainted by the sinful nature. This should make us cautious about trusting our emotions, because Satan tries to get us to think our sinful feelings are right. Guarding our hearts means rejecting Satan’s influence. For example, if we look at pornography, we let it into our hearts, and then sin taints the healthy emotion of love, turns it to lust, and begins to convince us that we deserve to enjoy sinful, selfish pleasures. The best way to guard the heart is to keep filling it with God’s Word, which comes from God’s heart and is always good and perfect.

Job 7:11“I cannot keep from speaking. I must express my anguish. My bitter soul must complain.”

The best way to handle our emotions is not to stifle them but rather to keep an open dialogue with the Lord and with others we trust. God loves us, and he can handle our emotional honesty, just as he has listened to the pain, frustration, fear, and anger of countless people before us. We can also share our feelings with a few godly confidants so they can help us redirect our emotions from unhealthy to healthy expressions.

Ezra 3:12-13Many of the older priests, Levites, and other leaders who had seen the first Temple wept aloud when they saw the new Temple’s foundation. The others, however, were shouting for joy. The joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud noise that could be heard far in the distance.

A single event can produce various emotional responses. While we celebrate a rainstorm for the garden, others may mourn because it is raining on their parade. The feelings of others may be quite different from ours, even over the same event. Even if we cannot understand how others may feel, just accepting such differences is a step in the right direction. We don’t need to force others to feel the way we do, and we are not obligated to feel exactly as others do.

Romans 13:14Clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.

Ephesians 4:21-23Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

When we allow Christ to guide us, he will direct our emotions toward healthy behaviors.

2 Peter 1:5-7Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

We often think of emotions in a negative sense, especially when they get out of control. But without emotions we cannot experience the power and deep satisfaction of a relationship with God or with other people. To prevent our emotions from controlling us is difficult. We shouldn’t deny our emotions, but neither should we let them to control us or cause us to sin. Instead, we should let our emotions deepen our fellowship with God, whether they involve sorrow or joy, anguish or peace, anger or love, doubt or gratitude. Then we will experience the drama and power of truly living in the love of Christ.