By James Holland Sr.
“For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power [victory] , and of love, and of a sound mind” (II Timothy 1:7).
Let’s face it, there are a lot of emotionally damaged people even in the ranks of believers. Beneath our pasted smiles and pleasant greetings, we hide the emotional struggles with which we are doing battle. We have become very professional in covering our wounds that the enemy continues to infect, the emotional nightmares that play themselves out within our spirit. Those feelings that are distorted and, in some cases, perverted haunt us like night creatures. It goes without saying that if you are a card-carrying human being, you will do battle with these feelings.
“A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle” (Proverbs 18:19).
Where does victory come into play when it comes to my emotions? Don’t kid yourself. We are all emotional beings. It is unrealistic to expect no Pain When there is disappointment or rejection. No matter how spiritual we may be, when covenants are broken and trust betrayed, even the most stoic person will flinch at the pain! While we understand that we walk by faith in God and His Word, we cannot deny that We are affected by how or what we feel. In fact, life Without feeling is like a riverbed without water. The Water is what makes the river a place of activity and life. You don’t want to destroy the water but you do want to control it. Feelings that are out of control are like the floodwaters of a river.
It is imperative that we allow God to help us get Our emotions under control. If not, we will live a very isolated and miserable life. As the verse in Proverbs says, not only will we have all kind of emotional walls to keep everybody, including God, out, but we will also be imprisoned by our distorted and wounded emotions.
Is This What God Wants?
Not according to the Scripture. So what does God want? We need only to go to His authoritative Word to find out. We have been talking about bringing our thinking processes in line with what God would have us to think so that what we think agrees with what is in our hearts. Then, when we speak, there is agreement with God.
Remember, transformation of the mind begins with ideas; ideas are reinforced by mental images; and feelings are the product of both. Once set in place, feelings can be the most powerful force of all.
The goal of transformation of the mind is the mind of Christ. That means we want to acquire the ideas of Christ and we want to feel what Christ feels. Feelings live on the front row of life.
Willpower will not conquer feelings. We are almost helpless in their path. Many people just try to block or stuff their feelings out of sight. Yet Scripture offers a different way. Rather than trying merely to control or stuff them, God actually says we can change them. He says we can feel about life what Jesus feels about life. Is that victory or what?
Passions and desires (also known as feelings) are the most used and powerful tools that trigger sinful action. Many sincere believers suffer in their walk because they made commitments prompted by their feelings. You walked off the job in anger or you burned a relationship over a silly disagreement. You said some things to friends that no one will be able to forget. The truth is that people of all ages can be enslaved by their feelings of anger, anxiety, malice, and bitterness. Through the channel of our feelings, Satan seeks to provoke the sins of pride, worry, discouragement, self-reliance, worldliness, lying, and unforgiveness, just to name a few.
Wouldn’t you much rather have feelings of contentment, peace, satisfaction, and the love of God to rule your life? Healthy feelings are essential to a victorious life. We must take care of our feelings; they don’t just happen.
In John 5:6, we see Jesus asking a man who had not walked in thirty-eight years a crucial question, “Do you want to be healed?” Notice that the lame man first gave an excuse of why he couldn’t be healed, why he had been that way for so long. Please don’t be offended, but I must now ask you, Are you ready to be healed? Are you ready to lay aside your excuses?
I am sure they are compelling since they have convinced you all this time that you couldn’t change, couldn’t let go. But the prevailing question is still Do you want to be healed? Haven’t you been emotionally damaged long enough? God can and will heal your wounds. In fact, as believers, we should just have scars, not ongoing wounds. Scars are signs that something has been healed.
God’s Word promises that His children can have peace, joy, and a sound mind. The foundation of such healthy emotions is the Word of God and a clear understanding of what God has promised, what He wants to do, and how to apply these promises to our lives.
Here are four steps to take to begin the healing process of your emotions so that victory can prevail in this area of your life:
1. Talk honestly with God about what hurts you.
2. As you talk to God, let the feelings associated with the hurt come to the surface your fears, anger, tears, and pain. Give these feelings to God in prayer.
3. Ask God to create in you a clean heart, a renewed mind, and an overcoming spirit.
4. Begin to claim and release God’s Word into your mind. Praise God for the healing that is taking place. Allow the work of the Holy Ghost to continue to work daily in your life.
“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:23-24).
“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (II Corinthians 7:1, NKJV).
A final note on allowing the Spirit of God to help us deal with our emotions. This is a key point that you need to lock away in your spirit. Over and over again in the Scripture God reaffirms His love for us. Yet there are many times we may feel unloved through the journey of life.
Always remember God loves you more than anything else He has ever created. God is more affected by how we respond to life and by what happens to us than He is by anything else!
” ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope’ ” (Jeremiah 29:11, NASB).
The affection of God for us does what nothing else can do; it breaks through the prison walls of emotional deception and the distorted views that evil has woven into our lives. Jesus came and died for what? For reputation? For lands? For universes? No! A thousand times, no! Jesus died for people, you and me; for all people. It is humanity that He loves more than anything else in His creation. It is impossible for humans to comprehend the depths to which the love of God reaches for the human race.
This is why Satan hates us so. We humans are the only light-bearing image of God in this fallen world. Jesus didn’t take on the form of a tree, a mountain, a river, an animal, or just some cosmic formation. He came in flesh, in the form of man. This was God’s idea from the beginning. After all, when God made Adam, He made him in His image. Nothing else in God’s universe can receive the salvation that God has made available for you and me.
Never forget your life can never get so messed up that you aren’t important to God. We are what God pursues. He desires our fellowship. He gets excited when we choose His ways and commit our lives into His care. When you view your life in this light, you will always know that life is worth the living and that God has chosen you for victory. It’s His victory, but He is ready to share it with us.
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11).
The above article, “Victory and My Emotions” is written by the author James Holland Sr. The article was excerpted from Holland’s book Chosen for Victory.
The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.
