A basic fact about human beings........
Our emotions predictably respond to "what" we are thinking.
In other words, emotions follow thought. (Nót the other way round!)
E.g. ....a 'Scary movie'....... My emotions don’t know that there is NO 'real danger'.
They simply responded to the vivid scene taking place in my imagination.
It was as if the events described were really happening.... !
That’s the 'danger' with "error" (unhealthy (irrational) thought patterns)
Whatever we put into our minds will affect our emotions...!
Emotions are the most vivid aspect of our human experience.
When we are in the middle of intense feelings, they seem like ultimate reality.
Because of this, it is 'too easy' to rely on our feelings rather than 'truth' to determine our attitudes and actions. ....... (Irrational Thinking (re. Ellis) stem from these incorrect thought patterns....)
In other words, “If it feels good, do it....” .......... (=NOT True....!)
However, God never intended for us to be controlled by our emotions.
Because our emotions have no intellect, they cannot analyze whether the scene in your mind is something that is actually happening or is something you 'conjured' up in your imagination. Our emotions simply respond, because God designed them that way.......
Emotions cannot discern the difference between the past, present, or future.
You may be dwelling on something that happened yesterday; or you may be thinking about what might happen tomorrow..........
Your emotions don’t know the difference & therefore they respond as if it were occurring right now.
Emotions in themselves are not bad.
They merely respond to what you are putting into your mind. In their proper role, emotions are the very 'Spice of Life', if put to use in the proper setting /perspective.
However, if you allow them to determine your attitudes and actions, you have an unsecured 'foundation' that will crumble under the strains and challenges of the world.
We all encounter people who are living totally emotion-driven lives, people who have decided that their 'feelings are the standard' for determining truth.... (E.g. Love is according to them a 'FEELING' & therefore they are falling in & out of Love because of their fluctuations in Feelings towards each other. Love is rather........ 'A cold-blooded decision' to unconditional commitment..!)
Some are living in direct contradiction to the Scriptures, yet justify themselves and say that their 'actions are NOT wrong'.....
Others claim to have knowledge of truth outside of God’s Word.
They have a feeling; they “just know” that God has spoken to them in spite of the fact that their decisions leave a wake of hurt, disillusionment, and confusion behind them....
Recalling events from our past can stir our emotions to respond in the present.....
Through continually mulling over past hurts, resentments, disappointments, and injuries, we can make ourselves absolutely unable to function today.
Those things may have happened a long time ago, but our feelings cannot tell the difference...!
Those things may have happened a long time ago, but our feelings cannot tell the difference...!
In the same way, we can also project through our imagination into the future, producing emotional responses today, that are just as real as if those things were actually happening...NOW already!
Jesus said: “......the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
Therefore........, the answer to the dilemma of emotional turmoil/conflict is to be transformed by seeing our situation from God’s perspective, where we will discover that truth.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
Paul did NOT say.....,
“Be transformed by the renewing of your emotions.”
He says that our lives will be transformed by the renewing of our minds; his admonition is directed toward our thinking.
This renewing is not something that just happens to you as you passively sit.
It is the decision to present your mind to the Spirit of God through the Scriptures to allow Him to use truth to dispel error in your thinking, just as light dispels darkness.
It is learning to look at God, yourself and all of life from God’s perspective (=truth) rather than from your own (=error).
God did not create us as emotional or intellectual robots, but rather to share His quality of life. It was the entrance of sin into the world that destroyed the harmony between mind, emotions, &...........will that Adam originally enjoyed.
Take a moment to think about it – feelings are the most unreliable things in the world.
They go up and down like a yo-yo.
But....... God has given us something much more reliable than feelings to depend upon in life – Jesus Christ and His Word.
In Summary :
* Learning to renew our minds by God’s truth, .....&
*....... stepping out in Faith-in-Him , -is the first step to experiencing true freedom from any emotional bondage.........
Shalom
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