Disembarking the Emotional Rollercoaster.

If I was to falsely tell you that your house had burned down, how you respond would largely depend on what you think about my words, even though it wasn't a factual statement.  

If you thought I was serious you would be distraught; if you thought I was joking you might laugh; if you thought I was a liar, you might be angry.  There could be a whole gambit of emotions that you could express, all dependant on what you think of what has been said, but not based on truth because it wasn't real.  Your emotions are not always based on the facts, but upon a perception. Perceptions and thoughts are easily swayed, changing even moment to moment some days.

This is the trouble with emotions!  Emotions themselves are not bad, but they are not concrete or certain.  They follow what we think. When we rely on our emotions, we're going to be lead astray because they are not always based on truth.

I believe that God designed us with the capacity to experience emotions; they make life interesting, but I don't believe we were ever meant to place feelings and emotions above the Word of God.  

We have to understand that we can never rely on our emotions to lead us.   Our emotions ARE like a thermometer showing us the temperature of what is in our hearts.   
Our emotions follow what we think. When we examine our emotions we can see what what sort of thing we have been thinking on, then we can use that to go back to the word (the mirror) and see what we need to uproot, and what seeds we need to plant.

Last week I spoke about the anchor in the storm, and today I want to follow on from that with regards to letting our emotions rule. Our thoughts direct our emotions, and when we use our own thoughts as a foundation, we are off to a bad and unstable start.

In Matthew 7:24 Jesus tells us that if we hear his words and do them, then we are like a wise man building his house upon a rock. No matter what the storms of life threw at it, it stood.  This is what is it is like to build your life on the foundation of the Word instead of on your emotions. 

In 1 Sam 30:6 David's wives, and the wives, sons and daughters of the men who were with him had all been captured by their enemies.  All his men turned against him and were ready to stone him It says he 'encouraged himself in the Lord"..   He could so easily have allowed his emotions to lead him, but instead, he focused on the Lord, and in this strengthened state he heard God's word, took action and recovered not only all they had lost, but more.

I have been in situations where my emotions have gone up and down like a rollercoaster.  This is not a great place to be in.   God showed me that my emotions followed my thoughts, and the only way to find a consistency or a safe place, was to fix my thoughts (meditate) on the unchanging truths from his word. 

If you want to get off that rollercoaster, then you have to take your thoughts in a different direction.  Romans 12 says that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds.  When we renew our minds to focus on what God says, instead of experiencing negative emotions, like fear, anger, resentment etc we will experience joy peace and rest, and we will not be swayed by the situations around us.