For much of my life I was told to control my emotions, as if somehow I could harness how I feel. But, the reality is we cannot control how we feel about a situation, we can only control how we react to it. If someone cuts me off while driving on the highway, I must resist the desire to respond in an unwise manner, no matter how badly I would like to. I will still feel angry, but the best response is to let it go, no matter how hard it is to do. Situations will always come up in life that will cause us to feel a certain way. We can’t control how we will react emotionally, but controlling how we react to our emotions is our responsibility.
We are instructed in the Word of God to not trust our emotions, Jeremiah 17:9 “ The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Truly our emotions will deceive us. When we are guided by how we feel, we many times will take ourselves out of the will of God. We can’t allow our emotions to guide our thoughts. God made us emotional beings, and I am thankful He did, however He never intended for us to be led by those emotions.
2 Corinthians 10:5 “ Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”
It is hard work to keep our thoughts going in the right direction! We are instructed to, bring them into captivity and to think in obedience to Christ. One of the best verses of Scripture God has given to instruct us on the “how” to keep our thoughts in check, is Philippians 4:8 quoted at the top of this post. Think on things that we know are: true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of a good report. We need to check our emotions and our reactions to them, against God’s standards in His Word.
Isaiah 26:3 “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”
Let’s not allow our emotions to control our thoughts. Let’s keep our mind stayed upon the Lord and live in His perfect peace.