Monday, 25th January 2021
1 Peter 4:2 – From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God’s will and not by human desires.
What are human desires? They’re your emotions and your affections. Once you become a Christ-follower, your life should be controlled by God’s will, not by how you feel.
Let me share with you three questions to ask yourself about your emotions when you’re trying to figure out how to deal with how you feel:
1. “What’s the real reason I’m feeling this way?” Maybe the answer is fear or worry. Maybe it relates to something your dad said to you years ago. Someone else says something similar, and even though it’s been years, that person becomes the target of all your pent up anger.
2. “Is it true?” Is what you’re feeling at that moment true? Is it in line with biblical teachings? In 1 Kings 19, Elijah was threatened by Jezebel and he got so discouraged that he even wanted to die. He went to God and complained, “God, I’m the only one in the entire nation of Israel left serving you (v10).” And God told him, He had reserved 7,000 people in Israel whose knees had not bowed to Baal (v18).
So what God was saying is, “I’ve got all these people who are still serving me! You’re acting like you’re the only one trying to do the right thing in the whole world! No. That’s not true.”
3. “Is what I’m feeling helping me or hurting me?” Will you get what you want by continuing to feel this way? A lot of feelings we have seem natural, but they’re actually self-defeating.
When you ask yourself these three questions and honestly answer them, you get a better grip on why you feel the way you do and what you need to do to help the situation.
That’s called managing your emotions.
HAVE A BLISSFUL WEEK
inspired Grisele 