Thoughts and emotions are not the
enemy of our spirit or of the Spirit of God. God puts His desires in our heart,
and uses negative thoughts and emotions as red flags to alert us to unmet needs
and unresolved conflicts in our life.
As we take these issues to the
cross, we gain God's perspective on them, and His wisdom and truth on how to
overcome or to fulfill them, until His peace rules in our heart.
The word "emotion"
comes from the Latin word "exmovere" which means "to move
out". Our emotions motivate us to feel, and then to do something about
them.
Emotions energize us, express how
we feel, arouse our passions, spice up our life and restore our soul. Living
without emotion is to live in a mental world of clinical, analytical thoughts
without expression.
Embracing our emotions is healthy
and fulfilling. Denying them is clinical and unhealthy. We block off a part of
our self that is very much like our God, who exhibits emotion in so many ways.
Usually, an emotional person is
empathetic, not weak; compassionate, not unstable; child-like, not childish.
Emotions are very vital to our psychological and physiological well-being.
Emotions influence our attitude
about our self, our world and other people. They also impact our actions. We
think thoughts and then feel feelings.
Our personality influences our
emotions and our emotions affect how other people perceive us. Owning our
feelings without blaming them on other people is a healthy activity which
allows us to effectively control them and to submit them to God's Holy Spirit
to perfect them and to make them more like His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23).
Prayer:
Father
God, unto You I lift up my soul. My soul often grieves because of the cares of
this world. Only You know how to best renew my mind with Your Word, restore my
emotions to true joy and peace, and return my will to following after You.
You
are my heart, and my soul rejoices before you. You set my feet to dancing the
dance of joy, and I acknowledge You in all of my ways. We attest to the
fact that all glory is due to Your name. You alone are worthy of all of our
praises (Ephesians 3:4; Psalm 25:1, 29:2).
Thought for the Day:
Our soul is
our personality. It contains our thoughts, our choices and our emotions. Faith
brings light to our soul, and helps us to think before we speak, so we do not trip
over our own words.
