Don't Let Your Emotions Control You

August 3, 2022 12:00 AM
"But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips."  Colossians 3:8
We live in an emotional world. Look around you. Observe the people that you work with or just run into on a daily basis. Everyone seems to be ruled by their emotions. When we get hungry, we start to get frustrated until our bellies are full. When someone challenges us in an aggressive way, we rise to the moment and match their intensity. When we are sad, it’s a “bad day,” and when we are happy, we call it a “good day.”
Something I have really been trying recently is keeping my emotions in check. Now let me clear, I do not mean hiding or suppressing emotion to where it eventually boils over and is released in a negative way. I simply mean the practice of self-control and responding to tense and high stress situations with an absolute calm. Yahweh gave us emotion. He loves our emotions, but He does not want them to govern our lives. He wants to govern.
Now, this takes practice but can result in wonderful outcomes just by a change in our response. I would encourage you this week to practice self-control and calm responses. This does not mean you keep your mouth closed (although it may require this sometimes) Speak the truth with confidence but deliver it with peace. You may be surprised and start to find tense situations in your life sorting themselves out.