The Alpha of Dealing with Emotions

UV 3014/10000 The Alpha of Dealing with Emotions
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life
Proverbs 4 v 23

The heart is said to be the seat of emotions and desires. It is the core or the inmost part of the human being. Scripture asks us to guard our heart. With what and with who do we guard our hearts or our emotions and desires? We can guard our hearts with scripture and with the Holy Spirit. What do we guard against? We guard our hearts against evil and the author of evil desires entering and ruling over our hearts. When the Holy Spirit rules and regulates our hearts, we produce the fruit of the spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. In the past few decades there has been a lot of writing, thinking and talking about emotional intelligence with little to show that it can or has been enhanced. In fact, if anything the evidence is that it has declined or rapidly deteriorating. The reason is that godly wisdom alone can deal with human emotions effectively.

Our natural emotions fed by our hitherto carnal nature are to be replaced by spiritual emotions – the fruit of the Spirit. Love is how we feel towards others, joy is how we feel within, peace is how we feel with others, patience is how we feel towards others, kindness is how we feel towards those who are weak, sick, poor or vulnerable, goodness is how we feel towards all of life, faithfulness is how we feel towards the Lord, humility is how we feel about ourselves and self control is how we control our feelings or emotions and regulate our desires, actions and reactions. Our foremost desire is not to please our own selves, satisfy our own desires or egos but to please the Lord for where the heart is, there lies our treasure. Instead of being mulish and stubborn, we are willing to change, to deny our own egos, lusts and pride, to conform to the image of Christ in us.

Scripture teaches us to make our anger short-lived: it should not last beyond sun set or the end of the day. The antidote is forgiving all who hurt or provoked us to anger. The uni-verse contains a clue to dealing with our emotions: study diligently. We need to study our hearts. We need to ask the Lord to examine our hearts, our thoughts and emotions and remove any contamination of this world as well as any negative emotion like envy, pride, hate, bitterness. To deal with emotions, the trait of self control is vital. It is not a natural quality but the result of our yielding our wills and emotions to the Holy Spirit. The mouth and tongue of man has a vital role in the expression of emotions. The words and the tone and tenor of our words are the barometer of our current state of emotions whether we are angry, positive or negative, stressed, relaxed, helpful, thankful, joyful or bitter and sad. It is impossible to control the human tongue unless we yield it to the Holy Spirit. The tongue is like a sail that catches the fair wind of the Holy Spirit. It has immense potential for self destruction and harm of others but that potential is neutralised and harnessed as a positive force when regulated by the indwelling Holy Spirit.