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Dealing
with Negative Emotions
In Jeremiah 42:11 God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, said, "Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not fear him, says the LORD, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand.”
Fear is a negative emotion.
In this passage, God is giving the people of Israel the assurance that
they don’t have to be afraid because he is going to deliver them.
To rid themselves of their fear, all they need to do is trust in him. Psalm 56 gives us evidence that King David learned this lesson in his life. He says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in thee. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust without a fear. What can flesh do to me? (Psalms 56:3-4)” In the course of a 24-hour day we experience many
emotions. Some are positive and
some are negative. Emotions are
neither right nor wrong, they just are. As
a part of our human experience, we have little or no control over them.
They just happen and are most often triggered by events outside of our
control. But how we respond to
these emotions is what matters. For
it is how we respond to our emotions that determines whether or not we
maintain peace, joy, tranquility and serenity in our day-to-day existence.
In Mark 4:37-41, Jesus and the disciples are crossing the
Sea of Galilee. Jesus is asleep
when a great storm arises. The
disciples are experienced fishermen, and they know they are in trouble.
They wake Jesus and accuse him of not caring whether or not they
perish, and he responds by saying, “Why are you afraid?
Have you no faith?” He
is teaching them that the proper response to a negative emotion, in this case
fear, is faith.
Jesus points this out again in
the story of Ja’rius’ daughter (Luke 8:40-56).
Remember, Jesus is on the way to heal Ja’rius’ daughter, and is
interrupted by the woman with the issues of blood. While Jesus is in the process of identifying the woman who
touched him, someone comes from Ja’rius’ house to report that his daughter
has died. Imagine the emotions
that overcame Ja’rius at that moment. But
Jesus responds by saying, “Do not fear; only believe, and she shall be
well."
When we experience negative emotions, God wants us to
trust in him, in his word, and in his promises.
He is in charge and he has said that he will never fail us or forsake
us (Deuteronomy 31:6,8), but we must have faith.
We are told in Proverbs 3:5-6 to "Trust in the LORD with all your
heart, and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
In this world, we are constantly bombarded with negative emotions that test our faith. Scripture tells us that we will never be tested beyond our strength and that God will provide us with the way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). The way of escape is through faith in him, his word and his promises. We can expect that Satan will constantly bombard us with
his fiery darts (negative emotions) (see Ephesians 6:16). Satan roams around like a roaring lion seeking someone to
devour (1 Peter 5:8). But we have
our shield of faith to ward off these attacks – to resist him.
And so as the negative emotions come, we are tried.
Our faith is tested, and it is that faith that is our way of escape.
We meet this test by placing our faith in God, in his word and in his
promises.
Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:2-4 of God’s precious promises and their purpose. He says, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.” This is the key to escaping the negative emotions we encounter and becoming partakers in his divine nature. To find God’s precious and very great promises, we must turn to God's word. Let’s look at some of God’s precious and very great promises that specifically focus on some of the negative emotions we experience.
In today’s world, we are constantly bombarded with negative emotions. Their purpose is to kill, to steal, and to destroy our joy, peace, serenity and tranquility, but God has given us the shield of faith which with we are able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one – all those negative emotions. We need only to hold our shield up in faith; and trust in God, in his word and in his precious and very great promises. |